It's no surprise that Jaume Collet-Serra has gone on to be an effective thriller director since doing this. The tension and suspense are top notch in this movie. My only problems were the length and some of the characterization. The relationship between the husband and wife in this fractures too quickly. The relationship between Esther and her adoptive mother seems to turn a little too quickly as well. The number of incredible suspense sequences more than makes up for those flaws. What wonders a twist from an older movie can do for you when you don't know about it. The twist in this is one of the best in movie history and it is well written because it is hinted at, but never spelled out. It also benefits from an atmospheric snowy setting and an award-worthy performance from Vera Farmiga.
The movie starts with Kate having a nightmare about the stillbirth of her latest child, Jessica. Kate is a recovering alcoholic and the loss has been hard on her and her marriage to John (Peter Sarsgaard). They also have a five year old named Max (Aryana Engineer), and 12 year old Daniel (Jimmy Bennett). They decide to adopt a child named Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman) from an orphanage run by a nun named Sister Abigail. When Esther first moves in she is greeted welcomely by Max who wanted another sister. Daniel is less welcoming and competes for attention. Soon though Esther is seen to act weird and weird things start happening around her. She catches Kate and John having sex and seems to know more about the act and the word "fuck," and it's meaning than any nine year old should. She lies to Kate about not knowing how to play the piano. She screams violently when bullies at school try to take the ribbons off her neck. She eventually pushes one of her bullies off the playground and she is lucky only have broken her knee. The differing opinions on whether this was an accident or not causes John and Kate to argue. This exposes a rift between them as John has not completely forgiven Kate for her alcoholism and Kate has not forgiven him for cheating many years ago. This is only compounded by the fact that John was flirting with a woman of one of the kid's at the playground. Signs that Esther recognizes and tells Kate about.
What I liked early on about this movie was the family drama aspect contrasting with the building dread as Esther does worse and worse things. I enjoy the relationship between Max and Esther which both feels like a sisterly relationship and a kind of mother-daughter relationship as well. Max sees Esther push her bully off the playground. Since Esther speaks sign language she manipulates her into not telling. Daniel competing with her for attention and not liking her feels real. Daniel was a character I hated early on. I saw him as a bratty kid and in some ways a bad kid. The scene where he shoots the bird with his paintball gun and then Esther bludgeons it with a rock shows the difference between them. Esther means business while he isn't prepared to kill the bird after he injured it. There are other aspects of foreshadowing such as Esther not wanting to go to the dentist that connect well with the twist later. There are some great suspense scenes as well. The scene where Kate looks through Esther's drawer while she takes a shower is particularly well done. Kate at one point blocks the door while Esther stops singing, so you think something will happen but never does.
Spoiler Section
Esther's full turn comes when Sister Abigail comes to visit the house. She reveals that Esther came from a Russian orphanage and that her last family was killed in a house fire under mysterious circumstances. When Sister Abigail leaves Esther throws Max onto the road to make Sister Abigail crash. Esther hits her with a hammer and they drag her body aside and roll her into the woods while Esther bludgeons her to death. This is a great suspense sequence as they drag her body off before an incoming car can see them. Daniel sees them taking the bloodied hammer back to the treehouse which had been locked up. Esther hides the hammer in a bag underneath a floorboard. She threatens Daniel with a knife to keep him quiet. At this point we know Esther is capable of murder and isn't just aggressive. She starts working more to turn Kate and John against each other. She takes the flowers out of plant where Kate had buried Jessica's ashes. This angers Kate who grabs her arm. Eventually Esther breaks her own arm and after buying bottles of alcohol John wants her to go to rehab or she loses the kids. Kate eventually finds out that Esther came from an Estonian mental hospital and not an orphanage...
Daniel goes into the treehouse trying to find the hammer but Esther catches him there and locks him in the treehouse as she burns it down. Daniel manages to fall onto one of the ledges and onto the ground without dying. Max shoves Esther as she is about to bludgeon him. At the hospital Esther asks to go use the vending machine but really goes to suffocate Daniel. She does so but the medics revive him. Kate smacks Esther around in front of everywhere and she is left at the hospital as John and Max go home. While at home Esther dresses up in makeup and a dress and seemingly drugs John's drink in an attempt to seduce him. He rejects her advances and threatens to send her away as he realizes Kate was being truthful about her. Kate gets a call from the Saarne institute and the doctor says that Esther's real name is Leena and that she is really a 33 year old woman, with hypopituitarism, a hormonal disorder that stunts growth and perpetuates dwarfism We see Leena remove her clothes and her ribbons to reveal scars on her neck and wrists she got trying to break out of straitjackets at the institute. We see her remove her dentures revealing some not so nice teeth as well.
Some of Esther's transformations throughout the film
John discovers neon lighting all over Leena's room that reveals her paintings to much more violent and disturbing than in normal light. She stalks John throughout the house and eventually kills him by stabbing him. This is crosscut well with Kate driving in the snow to get back home. When Kate does get home she finds John dead and is shot in the arm by Leena. Pursuing Max into the greenhouse Kate breaks the glass and lands on Leena. As Max and Leena escape to the woods, Leena and Kate have a struggle near the ice. The movie goes full circle as they crash through the ice and fight in the same water that Max broke into as a kid, making her deaf. As Leena attempts to get to Kate to bring her up with a knife hidden behind her back Kate says, "I'm not your mother," and kicks her back in the water, killing her.
The reveal and twist is interesting because it ties the movie back to so much of the foreshadowing and Esther's behavior. Her ability to make people underestimate how smart she is. Her jealousy of John and Kate's relationship, her knowledge of sex, not wanting to be seen in the shower, not wanting to go to the dentist, and not wanting her ribbons taken off all is hinted at but never spelled out. This is not a predictable twist, but certainly not one that comes out of left field. It is both jaw-dropping and well written. The final cat and mouse game through the house rivals any final suspense sequence is up there with cat and mouse sequences in movies like Torso and Play Misty for Me. Vera Farmiga channels all kinds of pathos in this. Sad, angry, desperate, loving, and scared. This might be her best performance in any horror movie and I like The Conjuring movies. The makeup to make Isabelle Fuhrnman look younger and older is great as well. While the movie earns its length the runtime does feel proper and it is a movie I won't revisit all the time because of that. I also enjoy the foreshadowing of the neon Warner Brothers logo at the beginning of the film.
Rating: 9/10
Trivia: Aryana Engineer who plays Max, is mostly deaf and uses Cochlear Implants to enhance her ability to speak and hear.
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