Orphan

No hype necessary with this US horror directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, starring Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard, as the family Colemans. Take an average US family, add a few issues - a hearing-impaired daughter, the loss of a child, reformed alcoholic wife and mistrusting husband then enter the evil, homicidal Russian orphan - nine year old, Esther played by Isabelle Fuhrman.

Buyer beware when adopting this child with the unplaced accent-but the Colemans seem blind to the stark red light glaring when faced with Esther sweetly painting in the orphanage. The Coleman's chose to ignore her eerie psychotic stare, Edwardian dress sense and ability to play masterful mind games at the tender age of nine. You can sense the wave of relief through the orphanage's nuns as the Colemans sign the dotted line, then Soviet Esther begins her demonic, dark masterplan of tearing the already fragile family unit apart.

A well-paced film with standard yet effective horror twists, tricks, gore, shock and sabotage. 'Daddy's new little girl' with her calm persona masking a psychopathic hell raiser can manage to scare fully grown adults as in myself to the point of trying desperately to rid the recollection of an ending that threatens to stay with you for some time….