The Orphan Killer

Matt Farnsworth is a hack. I haven't got a clue who finances his movies but my guess he has entered into a Faustian pact with Satan. Nobody in their right mind would give this guy money to make a film. If you think I'm being harsh then go check out "The Orphan Killer" then come back and tell me I'm wrong. It is incompetently written with a poorly defined story and no characterisation so ultimately we don't care about anything or anyone we see on the screen. Most of the ideas have been cribbed from far superior genre movies and the camera work is shambolic. We've all seen "Shaky-cam" is the "Bourne" movies, Farnsworth appears to have invented "unintentional shaky-cam" for the "Orphan Killer." It looks like it was filmed by someone on a home video-cam after they'd drunk 50 cups of espresso.

I wouldn't have bothered commenting only there is nothing worse than a film maker who goes out of their way to pull the wool over their potential audience's eyes. This is what Farnsworth has done here. This IMDb page is littered with fake reviews and fake comments appertaining to what a great movie this is and most of them have been written by Farnsworth and his cronies. If you listen to this con-man then "The Orphan Killer" is the next "Halloween" or "Friday The Thirteenth" when in truth it's the next DVD straight to the bargain-bin @ $1.99 in Walmart.

A pair of young children, a boy and girl, survive a home invasion that claims their parents lives. They are sent to the standard "evil" Catholic orphanage, and the girl is adopted while the boy stays behind. As with all Hollywood movies, the orphanage is home to a lot of abuse in the name of God, and the young boy acts out violently to others around him. He also enjoys wearing masks, but hey, who doesn't? Years later, the young girl has grown into a woman who teaches dance at the local Catholic school. Im not sure how many practicing Catholics go to mass in a black micro mini and fishnet stockings - sans underwear. But hey shes pretty hot. Long story short, killer brother comes back to Church and starts offing people left and right, tracking down his sister. Lots of blood later, with the help of her police boyfriend, she has her final showdown with her long lost brother.

This isn't a badly made film, in fact, it actually is a lot better then most of the low budget slashers out there. The acting is above average and the gore special effects are also well done. One of the problems is the music, with consists of loud heavy metal blaring during the action scenes. The other problem is the story plot points. Characters who do dumb things at dumb times, etc. Lots of horror movies do this, so it can be overlooked for the sake of the movie.

The movie as a whole is watchable and even enjoyable for a bit. It is not however, anything you will remember as soon as the credits roll.

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.

Everything about this awful excuse for a movie is trash: directing, acting, editing... you name it. Total nonsense. A truly and literally horror. Someone who knows how to make a movie (from the story, which has its moments up to a point) would make this film a least watchable. I still don't believe that I've endured until the end (even with fast forwarding). I was even trying to "connect the dots" but failed. Mr. Farnsworth should never again be allowed to waste someone's money and time in this business. Really, Ed Wood was a genius compared to this. On the other hand, maybe that was the point (or excuse) for letting this trash out in the open. Maybe this is a test of some kind. Who knows. Recommendation: avoid at all costs and whatever state of intoxication you may be. Don't insult your intelligence.

A lot of hype on this one and that hype is a fabricated smoke-screen that hides a mediocre low budget slasher flick. The only "tour de force" is the methods that the film makers have undertaken to bring recognition to this not awful but not particularly original slasher film. It DOES NOT "defy classification" folks...it's a slasher flick. That's pretty standard stuff. The wheel hasn't been reinvented here. It also DOES NOT go any measure of length "beyond current trends in gore" nor does it "break open a new suffering genre of horror". That being said, it's not the steaming pile of rubbish many angry viewers have portrayed it as. There is A LOT of anger from users on here about this movie and it's justifiable. The film maker went out of their way to paint this as some sort of movie that sets the bar. As if this movie would be the new standard that we measure horror by. When a film maker puts that sort of unrealistic pressure on their movie then there's a lot to live up too. Unfortunately, this movie cannot stand up to a number of obstacles in it's path. Namely, acting, budget, special effects, score, and pacing are all very amateur. The pacing and cinematography are some of the worse I've seen in some time. The ending is certainly a theme recycled over and over and over... For a good laugh...go read some of the better user reviews that found this movie to be the next big thing. Then go read their comments on other movies. 90% of them only did one review and this was it. That's what you call guerrilla marketing folks....and that's where this movie succeeded very well at. Call it Blair Witch Part II...