2. Orphan
Summary of film
Kate and John Coleman are rebuilding their troubled marriage.
Kate has a drinking problem, but is in therapy and is doing well.
She has been sober for one year. The couple decides to
adopt a child
They decide to adopt a nine-year-old Russian girl, Esther.
They immediately fall in love with her.
Kate begins to feel that Esther is manipulative and
possibly even psychologically disturbed
Kate delves further into Esther's past and discovers she
is not at all who she pretends to be
Esther is in fact an old women with a syndrome that makes
her appear look like a child
She tries to seduce the father, and fails. The mother
then drowns her in a lake.
3. A)Has the institution created a text with a conventional narrative structure?
Beginning
Yes this film has a linear structure as the film begins quite cheerful. A married
couple want to adopt a child.
Middle
During the middle of the film there is a problem, as they find out the young girl
they adopted is not who she said she was.
End
The end this is then resolved as the mother kills the adopted child and therefore
leaves the audience feeling satisfied
Most films consist of this type of structure and therefore this film has a
conventional narrative structure
This Film narrative is explicit as it is clear and easy to follow. Most people are
used to and fond of this type of narrative.
4. Beginning act1
The Film begins cheerful…
Kate and john are Esther catches the Kate and John Esther is placed
on their way to couples attention. adopt Esther and into a new school,
the She seems very show her around and is introduced
orphanage, where friendly and is her new home. to her class mates.
they wish to amazing at art.
adopt.
5. Middle Act2
Then problems start to occur….
Esther Starts acting Esther encourages Esther sets a tree Esther aggressively
bizarre, and stares her adopted sister, house on fire pushes a little girl
intensely at her Maxine to help her purposely, when from the top of the
adopted sister kill a the lady who her adopted slide.
while she is works in the brother, Daniel was
sleeping orphanage. inside.
6. End Act 3
Finally the problem is resolved.
Esther reveals Esther attempts to Adopted mother Esther drowns in
who she really is, seductively seduce kicks Esther into the freezing lake.
a mature woman her adopted the lake and
inside the body father breaks her neck.
of a young girl.
7. Why have the film makers done this?
1) To ensure the film reaches target
audience
2) The film will definitely make money
as the audience will want to see it
3) Certain that it will entertain and
satisfy the audience
8. What impact does this have on the audience?
Positive Negative
The audience are familiar with the Becomes to predictable
conventional structure
The will enjoy the conventions as this is Can get quite boring, as the film fails to
what they are used to surprise
It is certain that the audience will be Discourages social interaction
entertained
Audience are satisfied with the Hinders creative opinions
outcome of film
9. What audience expectations have they established or challenged by using this
structure ?
They have established the conventional idea of a the story line having a:
• pleasant beginning
• A Dilemma in the middle
• A resolution at the end
This is the audiences general expectation of how the structure of a film should be like .
This structure is very typical of Similarities to orphan:
the horror genre and conforms
to audiences expectations
because:
Everything is fine in the beginning I.e. couple Everything is fine, couple are looking to
are just married. adopt.
In the middle, everything starts to fall apart Esther has obsession with her adopted
i.e. Evil man has obsession with woman, and father, when this fails she tries to harm the
tries to harm them both family.
At the end there is a battle between good There is fight between Esther and her
and evil and good usually wins. adopted mother. The mother wins and good
beats evil.
Therefore the film ‘Orphan’ has established the audiences expectations of the horror genre
