. CONTEMPORARY HORROR FILM : ORPHAN (2009)

Orphan is a 2009 American psychological horror thriller film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. It stars Vera Farmiga,Peter Sarsgaard and Isabelle Fuhrman. The film centres on a couple who, after the death of their unborn child, adopt a mysterious nine-year-old girl. The child on the poster appears to be innocent, but as this is a horror she is in fact the villain however we can guess the film is about a this particular young girl who is disguised as an orphan. She is dressed in clothes that could be categorized as old fashioned this denotes that the character is from a early time period/older than she seems (she is in fact 33 years old).The text used for 'orphan' represents a possessing or an evil/devil like character as the writing looks like something scratched on a black board or wall. This denotes foreshadowing in the film as the she draws satanic and horrible images on the walls in her room.The text 'can you keep a secret' is in red writing and this implies that the secret is something deadly. The use of a rhetorical question here, makes the viewer extremely nervous and places great emphasis on the films frightening content. Red is the colour of blood, and with the red bow around her neck viewers  could infer that she will die or she may have something to hide underneath it that needs to be covered over. The use of her eyes appearing 'blacked out' make her seem as though she is without a soul , as they say the 'eyes are the window to the soul'. Black connotes death, night and evil - and this image relates to the fact that she is in fact a psychologically damaged adult.

With this trailer we observe a range of close up shots are used when Esther is in a scene, this normally shows us a sinister smile or what appears to be an almost pure appearance however with the use of shadows we can see she isn't completely virginal. This is extremely effective as we are able to recognize that she is not all that she may seem and with the use of objective treatment we focus on each and every move she makes. We become wary of her and therefore want the other characters to as well.