Jaume Collet-Serra’s horror, Orphan (2009), is an interesting examination of grief, development and the process of moving on – or rather the inability to do just that.

The plot is sprinkled with motifs of stunted growth, dysfunction and stagnation. Their child is almost entirely deaf, the parents are trapped in a superficially ‘perfect’ marriage that realistically is a cage of lies and distrust, the mother endured a stillbirth that continues to haunt the family and the adopted, demonic Esther turns out to be a 33-year-old psychopathic woman with an extremely rare form of dwarfism (aka stunted growth). Every plot point is either premature or tainted with trauma from the past.

While not being quite the right film to show your friends that are considering adoption, it effectively captures a tortured domestic scene that, although obviously exaggerated and slightly outrageous for entertainment purposes, reflects the struggles that many people experience: loss of a child, raising a child with an impairment of some kind, unfaithfulness and the stress of major change. Yes, Esther is a physical character in the film. But she metaphorically stands for much more than that. She represents the festering dysfunction between the parents, Vera’s repressed alcoholism, the father’s wandering eye and much more. She is the epitome of everything that was already wrong with the family, a symbol of repression, deceit, dysfunction and facade.

Orphan elicits responses of discomfort and frustration rather than explicit fear and suspense. It slowly and subtly crawls under your skin, each action and decision infuriating you more than the last. You are left with a sense of helplessness that many horror films do not know how to properly deploy. This helplessness and frustration are products of horror that can leave you more psychologically drained than any plain-jane jump-scare sequence. Collet-Serra presents an impossible scenario with no obvious escape – who could suspect a child of such heinous crimes? – that dooms both the characters and the viewer to a downward spiral. There is literally never a perfect moment in this film and that is ironically what makes it a good film.

Not without its plot-holes – not in a million years would you find a legitimate American adoption service adopt out a child that they realistically knew nothing about and no way could two tiny girls pull a grown nun off the side of the road alone – Orphan is not your average horror film and it finds its success in exactly that. Don’t watch this movie is you are searching for a supernatural, blood-curdling saga. Watch this movie if you want a psychological thriller filled with swathes of domestic social commentary.