The Orphan Killer (2011)

- written March 4th, 2011









Written by Harley Quinn

The film centers around two siblings, Marcus and Audrey Miller, whose parents were murdered in a home intrusion at a young age and were sent to an orphanage. Soon after, Marcus seemingly snaps as another orphan begins to tease his little sister. He reacts as any other child would and proceeds to beat the young boy to death with a baseball bat, gaining him the nickname, and legend of, The Orphan Killer. The nuns who run the orphanage put him in exile, beating him mercilessly and forcing him to wear a mask in hopes of making the other children too afraid to approach him. Audrey is soon adopted, but Marcus is left behind. Several years later, Marcus finds his way to his baby sister, who now works at the orphanage, and feels she needs to be taught a lesson for abandoning him. Of course, his need to kill leaves him with a trail of bodies and organs along the way. But maybe Audrey has a stronger will than he'd expected.           This is definitely what was once popularized as torture porn. If you don't think you can handle some rather long drawn out killings, including a man getting stabbed in the face until it splits open and his brain falls to the pavement, I wouldn't recommend attempting to sit through this one. The amount of gore is rather remarkable, but never quite steps over the line into cheesy special effects. I am a fan of old school horror that relied solely on makeup for gore, which this film did. There's nothing worse than compromising decent makeup for horrible computer effects. The acting from the main characters is quite good for what I was expecting going into the film. The story holds up very well throughout, basing quite a bit of it around religion, specifically Catholicism. It seems to hint toward a personal conflict from the writer without being too preachy. At least not too preachy for a film in its setting. For the plot to maintain throughout the blood is a feat that few current gore fests have succeeded to do, which gained this film some points for me. I would very easily put this in the category of soon-to-be cult status. All of the elements are there. It's just a matter of word of mouth getting it around. I don't see it taking long before it has its own devout fan base, which is already being raised on their page.           The biggest fear I have for the future of this film is there are many comparisons I can see being made with Marcus Miller and Michael Myers once it starts gaining popularity. They both wear masks. Their beginnings were on Halloween. They both have their little sisters at the top of their lists - but it's all in the differences. Unlike Michael, Marcus speaks, and he is oh so vocal with what he feels the need to say. And as we also remember with our Shatner-faced friend, his reasoning behind his actions was left a mystery. That changed when Rob Zombie took his spin on it. One thing, however, remained the same with Michael. Why exactly did he feel the need to kill his sister after all these years? Speculation can be made, but it isn't quite expressed why he would spare her as an infant only to come back so many years later. There is no speculation with The Orphan Killer. Although we all know that he is very out of line with his assumptions, he expresses very plainly why he feels the need to come after his sister and why it took so long to get from Point A to Point B. And regardless of seeing some similarities, Marcus Miller is in a league of his very own. Although I love my masked killers, there are times that I would love to see them become more human yet remain the monsters they are. The silent masked icons get the job done but have no personality. Our good pal Mister Miller holds up his monstrous side by hiding his emotions behind a tattered mask, yet he remains human by speaking his ramblings on Jesus, vengeance, family values, and the clergy. It's a damn near perfect combination that I've been waiting patiently for until now.           As of now, the only place to purchase this film is through the TOK fan page on Facebook. It can be bought on DVD or Blu-ray, both of which come with a free soundtrack chocked full of blaring metal. The amount of time it will take for the film to be more readily available is unknown, but the shipping is free now, so why wait?

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