Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

You want a good horror film about a child from hell, you got one. Do not, under any circumstances, take children to see it. Take my word on this.

Philadelphia Inquirer by Tirdad Derakhshani

Orphan, with a perverse plot twist at the end, will keep you on tenterhooks from its nightmarish opening scene to its chilling last frame.

San Francisco Chronicle by Mick LaSalle

A two-hour nervous breakdown.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch by Kevin C. Johnson

During a summer with the usual transforming robots and young wizards, this chilly flick is a bit of a break, and there are worse options than letting this Orphan in the door.

The Hollywood Reporter by Kirk Honeycutt

Furhman plays pure evil with such supreme calmness that only her eyes shine with madness. Indeed, all of the child actors are superb, especially the expressive Engineer.

Boston Globe by Ty Burr

The best part of Orphan is the outstandingly lunatic plot twist that kicks in just as you're checking your watch and hoping they'll wrap things up. This development - I'd love to tell you, but you wouldn't believe me - boosts the movie into overdrive for a final 20 minutes of happy, disreputable mayhem.

USA Today by Claudia Puig

It's a cut above most spooky-kid movies, with a twist that sets it apart.

Film Threat by Jessica Baxter

For the most part, Esther is an entertaining and solid addition to the Evil Child canon. There may be something wrong with Esther, but there's nothing terribly wrong with Orphan.

NPR by Nathan Lee

The movie is, as these things go, enjoyably trashy.

Chicago Tribune by Michael Phillips

Assuming your psycho-pigtailed-killer memories extend back as far as "The Bad Seed," Maxwell Anderson's play filmed by director Mervyn LeRoy in 1956, Orphan may remind you of the icon made famous by Patty McCormack.