10 Unexpected Reasons Behind Awesome Horror Movie Moments

The brilliantly twisted Orphan concludes with an epic fight on a frozen lake, where serial killer Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman) and her adoptive mother Kate (Vera Farmiga) have their fateful battle to the death.

The tense sequence sees the pair fall through the ice, and as Kate climbs out, the secretly 33-year-old Esther reverts to her childlike persona in an attempt to get the drop on Kate.

Kate sees through it, though, promptly kicking Esther in the face, breaking her neck and sending her falling back into what is now her watery grave.

Believe it or not, this wasn't originally part of the plan at all. Orphan was initially scripted to take place in October, but when the cast and crew arrived to the Canadian shooting location to begin filming, a snowstorm had turned the entire area white.

With no way to plausibly disguise this fact, the filmmakers decided to lean into it, shifting the setting to the winter, rejigging several scenes and quickly coming up with a new climax on the frozen lake.

While it's never been stated precisely how the movie would've ended originally, the finale we got is ultra-suspenseful and moody-as-hell, so the unexpectedly inclement weather was probably for the best.