Please note that this article is about the movie “Orphan”, but there are NO spoilers in this article.  If you post spoilers to the movie in the comments, then I will moderate them.  I’m not big on moderating comments, but I’m also not big on spoilers, so there you go.

Labeling the Movie

I went to see “Orphan” in the theater the other day.  The movie sort of defies classification, but most people are labeling it as a psychological thriller with horror elements.  I feel comfortable calling it that.  I feel even better just calling it a scary movie and leaving it at that.  So that’s what it is, a scary movie!  A scary, although fictional, motion picture.  A hyperthetical “what if?” which is basically what all works of fiction are.

Psychological Thrillers:

Like I mentioned, this particular work of fiction has been labeled as a psychological thriller.  The term psychological thriller hasn’t been in mainstream use for too long.  One of the first notable examples that I can think of is the movie, “Stir of Echos” (1999).  Once Final Destination (2000) and Donnie Darko (2001) used this label, the term has since caught on, being applied to countless new movies, and has been applied to many movies from the past that were previously labeled as “horror”.

One of these movies was Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” (1960), which had a profound psychological impact on the population at the time, and actually made people afraid to take showers, exposing how vunerable and exposed a victim could be if attacked while taking a shower.  The star of the movie, Janet Leigh, professed that after viewing the movie, she no longer took any more showers, unless she had to!

Another example would be “Jaws” (1975), which had a similar effect on people, and made people afraid to go swimming in the ocean.  As a matter of fact, when the movie was released in the summer of ’75, beach attendance immediately dropped!  Not to mention that various people have accused “Jaws” of creating a public misconception about the true nature of sharks, and to create unjust fear of them.

“Negative Stereotypes”

Recently, “Orphan”, and it’s theatrical trailer has caused some controversy due to the fear that the film could affect people to be afraid of adopting a child and that it creates “negative stereotypes”.  Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not necesarrily putting “Orphan” in the same category as “Jaws” and “Psycho”.  However, the underlying principle for how the movie has affected the audience is the same here.  All of these movies work on a deep rooted fear that we have, and build off of it in an attepmt to create horror for the viewer.  Whether it be the fear of being naked and defenseless, the fear of swimming in open water, or the fear of bringing a complete stranger into your home, these are all fears that people have come face to face with after viewing the movies.

Allow me to return to my main point.  “Orphan”, just like “Jaws” and “Psycho” are fictional movies.  Furthermore, they are fictional psychological thrillers, meaning the very reason that they were made were to provide a thrill for the audience, by affecting them psychologically.  (Imagine that!)  These movies touch on deep rooted psychological hangups that we might have, in order to give us a thrill, (to scare us).  And I can’t speak for everyone reading this, but I can speak for myself when I say that I live in a free country, and if I want to watch a hypothetical “what if” motion picture about a homicidal orphan, then there’s nothing wrong with it.

Stop Looking For A Scapegoat!

There’s a lot of things wrong with the adoption community and the child welfare services, so it’s not quite as simple as placing blame on the entertainment world for the fact that there are children without homes.  It doesn’t all boil down to fear.  And besides, if it really is true that a simple thing such as a fictional, hypothetical “what if” scenario such as a motion picture can inspire real fear in people, then we can consider that a true blessing, as it brings to surface the exact things that we need to work on as a society, and it lets us know exactly where our misplaced fear is at.

This is to anyone who has an issue with “Orphan”.  Instead of boycotting the movie, the studio, etc,  how about taking all of that misplaced negative energy and put it towards something noble, such as child welfare reform, or working toward casting adoption in a positive light?  Quit pointing your fingers, and do something positive for once in your lives, because we can’t keep destroying and changing everything in an attempt to keep everyone from being offended.  After all, a wise man once said that existence is suffering.  Those who learn to live with that, instead of trying to build an existence of non-suffering are the ones who truly get what it means to be alive.