10 Movie Reveals That STOPPED You From Walking Out
4. Esther Is Dead - Orphan: First Kill
Many groaned when a prequel to 2009's deliciously entertaining horror film Orphan was first announced, especially given that lead actress Isabelle Fuhrman was now well over a decade older, seemingly making the prequel an awkward fit.
And while First Kill's first hour suggests a pretty typical, forgettable horror prequel whose attempts to make Fuhrman's appearance consistent with the previous film are laughable at best, things take a seriously unexpected turn at the end of act two.
The film details Leena/Esther escaping from an Estonian psych ward and assuming the identity of missing American girl Esther, where she's reunited with "her" family - mother Tricia (Julia Stiles), father Allen (Rossif Sutherland), and brother Gunnar (Matthew Finlan).
Yet the hugely unexpected twist sees Tricia save "Esther" from a detective who discovers her deception, shooting him dead. Tricia then reveals she's known Leena wasn't her daughter from the beginning.
Why? Because the real Esther died four years prior in an argument with Gunnar, and Tricia faked Esther's disappearance to protect her son while keeping her husband firmly in the dark.
It's such a clever and genuinely surprising "Holy s**t!" moment in a movie that's so unremarkable up to this point, gamely rearranging the chess board for the third act as Esther discovers she's got a scheming femme fatale for an adoptive mother.