Take a step into the world of Orphan: First Kill’s Esther – if you dare. Today, Paramount+ gave fans a behind-the-scenes look with a featurette in which viewers hear from leading actors Isabelle Fuhrman and Julia Stiles, as well as the film’s director, William Brent Bell, and others. Filling us in on how some of the magic was created, we’re treated to looks at Fuhrman and her younger body doubles who helped to fill out those scenes where Esther appeared particularly childlike. Bringing the backstory of the slasher villain to the forefront, at the end of the day, production was clearly ready to do anything to make it work. While we’ve previously seen some of the tricks they had up their sleeves to make the now 25-year-old Fuhrman look like a child, this new featurette brought even more to light.
Since first stabbing its way onto Paramount+, VOD, and select theaters back in August, it’s been made abundantly clear that fans were ready to see the prequel and lore surrounding the mysterious child faking adult from 2009’s Orphan. What started as a limited theatrical release soon made its way into almost 500 more theaters across the country after the film hit the $6 million mark during its first week out.
Orphan: First Kill tells the origin story of the sadistic and brutal Esther (Fuhrman), a 33-year-old woman masquerading as a child. While the first film focused on the recently adopted Esther as she goes to a new home and a loving family only to wreak havoc on them before the mother (Vera Farmiga) uncovers her deep dark secret, the prequel explained more of how Esther fell into the life of a manipulative, murderous villain.
In First Kill viewers are taken on Esther’s journey from Estonia to America where she impersonates the identity of a missing child. Katie (Stiles) and Richard Mauerova (Rossif Sutherland) are at first struck with relief and gratefulness when their missing daughter returns, but soon those feelings are replaced with horror when they realize their child isn’t who she has claimed to be.
The prequel took its cues from the Bart Layton helmed 2012 documentary, The Imposter. In it, a longtime missing Texan boy returns home after being gone for years. Although the family is a bit skeptical, they accept that this must be their son until fingerprint analysis reveals the truth – that he’s actually a French conman. After being sentenced to six years in a Texas prison, the then 30-year-old man returns to Europe and continues his heist over the next several years.
If you have yet to catch Orphan: First Kill, it’s the perfect watch heading into the spooky season. You can check out the behind-the-scenes action play out below.
