20 Horror Movies That Weren't What Anyone Expected

18. Orphan

You have to give the producers of Orphan credit for leaning so perfectly into the whole Evil Child trope that nobody really suspected there might be anything else going on here.

After all, with the adorable-yet-psychopathic Esther being played by an actual child in Isabelle Fuhrman, why wouldn't she simply be a kid with a seriously twisted streak?

But Orphan's big secret - and here's your spoiler warning - is that Esther is actually a 33-year-old Estonian woman with a hormone disorder which has stunted her physical growth and allowed her to pose as a child.

It's a completely unhinged twist and yet one which elevates the film far beyond the pantheon of over-familiar murderous child movies we've seen since The Omen made it so iconic 50 years ago.

Needless to say, considering how easily the twist could've fallen totally flat and sunk the entire movie, the filmmakers were blessed to have a young actress as capable as Isabelle Fuhrman.