The Orphan Killer

The first thing that hit me with The Orphan Killer was the arrogance behind it. This is a Matt Farnsworth movie from his production company which is basically his name, it also stars him and the cover art for the IMDB page has his signature on it. Really?

It tells the story of a psychotic young man who grows up into a psychotic older man who *Shock horror* goes on a killing spree, aiming specifically for his sister.

Our killer wears ordinary street clothes but has a mask that would be right at home on a Slipknot set, it looks rather a weird contrast.

The film looks solid enough, money clearly went into it and it shows. In no way is the movie bad, it's just so incredibly unoriginal.

We've seen this before, near enough literally. It's just yet another slasher flick with no real character or identity, methinks Mr Farnsworth needs to come down off his high horse.

The Good:

Fairly decent looking killer

Okay soundtrack

Looks better than you'd expect

The Bad:

Certain pretentiousness about the whole thing

Devoid of originality

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

When bad things happen to you it's because God is out back having a cigarette

This "movie" which consists of just random scenes, almost no dialogue and horrible acting and horrible effects is a huge waste of time. Do not bother with this piece of trash, it is unbelievable that someone could think this would be worth watching. I have no idea what the director and the actors thought they were creating when they filmed this trash. HUGE WASTE OF TIME! WARNING YOU WILL REGRET WATCHING THIS PIECE OF CR%P! Wow just when you thought you had seen the worst movie in the world, you stumble upon trash like this. I am truly upset I wasted a few moments trying to watch this when I could have spent time doing something more fun like shoveling dog doo doo out of the yard or rolling naked in broken glass.

The Orphan Killer can best be summed up as a mixed bag of a horror film. It has some great makeup effects, but bad camera work. It has some great scenes, but overall isn't all that good. It has an interesting concept for a story, but plot holes and unbelievability derail your immersion while you're trying to enjoy it.

The story is about two orphaned siblings, Audrey and Marcus. Audrey is adopted while Marcus is left at the orphanage. While Audrey grows up and apparently has a normal life, Marcus grows up tormented for most of his life by the nuns that run the orphanage, and is made to wear a mask due to the fact that he is dangerous to the other children, and the staff. He goes insane and wants to kill his sister, as she left him there, and film gives you enough back story to make it clear.

The movie has several flaws that include, but aren't limited to; camera work, acting, sound, too much fake blood (to the point that it's laughable), plot holes that are huge, and no real character development beyond Marcus. There is no doubt that the film is low budget, so a few of these things can be over looked, and there are some really solid moments in TOK which makes you wish that more time could have been taken with the story and some of the camera work.

The scenes between Audrey and Marcus, while they are in the basement, are done quite well in parts. The camera work, while they are on the roof of the building, is pretty well done as well. Unfortunately these moments aren't enough to make you look past the flaws, but it's worth checking out if you're really in the mood for some low budget slashing. If you're prepared to lower your expectations, when it comes to everything needing to make since, and you may just enjoy it.

5 out of 10

the film plays like a standard 80's slasher horror that tries to flesh out the character of the masked killer. the film is almost like a remake of John carpenters halloween with a heavy dose of Friday the 13th and whiff of nightmare on elm street.(creepy child singing the title over and over)though unfortunately not as good as any of these films that it is clearly inspired ripping off or a homage too.

the first act is a little too drawn out and has some truly terrible acting but has some fun kills. even if low budget kills effects are a bit ropey. the second act is where it becomes interesting and has some moments of discomfort but is mostly when we find out about what motivates orphan killer, unfortunately the third act becomes laughably predictable and badly thought out and hurts the rest of the film.

the film did have its moments and was not a complete waste of time and shows promise but largely has no new ideas and only cares in developing the orphan killer even the heroine is largely left without any depth or motivation other than trying to keep her extremely good looking body alive and in one piece.

After reading the reviews about TOK on the IMDb board for a long time, it seemed to me that the movie splits the audience in two groups, lovers and haters. And because I'm a Horror-Movie fan, I decided to watch TOK and form my own opinion. OK, and here is my review:

"The Orphan Killer" focuses only on depiction of diverse bloody and gory effects. This fact separates TOK from the big mass of mainstream movies, but on the other hand only through splatter effects a movie will never become a masterpiece. The director should have set more on the plot-quality than on the murder-quality. TOK would have indeed potential for a sequel but without a story there is nothing unique in TOK. I've seen this and that in endless slasher flicks in the past.

There is no horror sound atmosphere in TOK. Every time Marcus grabs a "tool" the Metal Sound rushes in and kills the tense scenery. After a while the music starts to be annoying. In my opinion a creepy atmospheric score would do much better than this nerve killing Metal soundtrack. I felt never entertained throughout the movie. I was rather pushed from one kill to another, which was exhausting and boring. In the end I was glad the movie last scarcely over 80 minutes.

Conclusion: If you've seen various horror flicks in your life and have something to compare with, in addition you're not related to anyone of the film crew so that you are unbiased; you will never rate TOK with ten out of ten stars. I'll give it three stars out of ten. Why three? First because I'm generous and second because I've seen worse in my life.