Orphan is a 2009 psychological horror film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and written by David Leslie Johnson from a story by Alex Mace.

It was produced by Joel Silver and Susan Downey of Dark Castle Entertainment, and Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson Killoran of Appian Way Productions.

Esther then exhibits hostile behavior in front of Max and Daniel, such as killing an injured pigeon and breaking the ankle of a bullying classmate.

Sister Abigail, the head of the orphanage, visits the household, warning Kate and John that tragic events and incidents occur around Esther, including the house fire that killed her previous adoptive family.

She has hypopituitarism, a rare hormonal disorder that stunted her physical growth and caused proportional dwarfism, and she has spent most of her life posing as a little girl.

While Kate is talking to Dr. Värava from the Saarne Institute, Leena furiously removes her makeup that made her look childlike; the ribbons she wears around her neck and wrists conceal the livid scars she received from trying to break out of straitjackets during her time at the asylum.

[4] Esther of Estonia was inspired by the May 2007 media coverage[6] of 34-year-old Barbora Skrlová, a woman impersonating an orphan who took over her first adoptive family, manipulated the mother and her sister to chain and starve both their sons/nephews, and ran away from the police when caught.

[14][15] The film opened in the 4th spot at the box office, making a total of $12.8 million, behind G-Force, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and The Ugly Truth.

The website's consensus reads: "While it has moments of dark humor and the requisite scares, Orphan fails to build on its interesting premise and degenerates into a formulaic, sleazy horror/thriller.

[20] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave Orphan 31⁄2 stars out of 4, writing: "After seeing 'Orphan,' I now realize that Damien of 'The Omen' was a model child.

"[21] Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle also gave a positive review, commenting: "Orphan provides everything you might expect in a psycho-child thriller but with such excess and exuberance that it still has the power to surprise.

"[22] Todd McCarthy of Variety was less impressed, writing: "Teasingly enjoyable rubbish through the first hour, Orphan becomes genuine trash during its protracted second half.

"[23] Manohla Dargis of The New York Times wrote: "Actors have to eat like the rest of us, if evidently not as much, but you still have to wonder how the independent film mainstays Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard ended up wading through Orphan and, for the most part, not laughing.

Club wrote: "If director Jaume Collet-Serra set out to make a parody of horror film clichés, he succeeded brilliantly.

[27] The controversy caused filmmakers to change a line in one of their trailers from: "It must be difficult to love an adopted child as much as your own" to "I don't think Mommy likes me very much".

Esther's shadowy past includes Eastern Europe; she appears normal and sweet but quickly turns violent and cruel, especially toward her mother.

"[29] In February 2020, development of a prequel film was announced, titled Esther, with William Brent Bell signed on as director from a script by David Coggeshall.