Ruptured Review: The Orphan Killer

Country of origin- U.S.A
Year of release- 2011
Director- Matt Farnsworth
Stars- Diane Foster, David Backus, Matt Farnsworth 
                        

Like a great deal of slasher films this one doesn’t really have much in the way of plot going on, so instead of spoiling the film for you I will keep the plot breakdown to a minimum. The film begins with a woman (Audrey) arriving at a large catholic high school in order to organise some kind of play. Audrey is actually a very likeable character, and throughout the film I found myself rooting for her. We later see some of the students at the school talking about the legend of ‘Marcus Miller the Orphan Killer’. The legend goes that Marcus’s sister was adopted and he was left to the mercy of the nasty nuns in the now long gone orphanage that used to be part of the school. Throughout the film we see flash backs of the kind of punishments that the nuns dished out to young Marcus because of his attacks on other children in the orphanage. To say the nuns get a bit carried away is understating it, they whip him, half drown him and make him ware the mask that he is still wearing. Is it any surprise that with all that shit he turn into a homicidal maniac? Obviously, Marcus decides that the night of the show is a good time to turn up to the school/orphanage and kill whoever he finds, but he seems to take a great deal of interest in one specific person, Audrey.  

The film has a lot of very good things going for it, first being The Orphan Killer himself. He was the best slasher movie killer I have seen in a very long time, I really liked his character, and at times I felt real sympathy for him. An interesting point about the killer is his very down to earth appearance. He has a plain shirt, plain black trousers and his mask, this in contrast to most slasher movie killers who generally feel the need to dress like gay pirates attending a carnival. The kills throughout the film were very good, all done with high quality practical effects and a bucket full of blood thirsty imagination. We see such gory goodness as a machete through the face, a throat sawed open with barbed wire and an arm cut off with a hacksaw. Although the film was made with a limited budget both the acting (for the most part) and the cinematography were both good.

The film is however not without its problems, the first being the complete loss of momentum around half way through. The first 40 minutes of the film zipped along very nicely with good pacing, but once the film turns from a slasher to a tortureploitation movie for what felt like a very long time, it instantly losses all its built up momentum and pace. After the torture stops the film tries, but never really manages to regain its previous pace. My other complaint about the film is the handful of plot holes that do make the film a bit less enjoyable. I can usually forgive plot holes in independent horror, but I did find myself bothered by the few in this one. But overall I was very impressed by this one and would recommend it to slasher fans, and non slasher fan alike. I am going to give this one 7/10, check it out.                                           

Check out the films site - The Orphan Killer | Slasher Icon