[Mother of Fears] Killing the Cuckoo in Orphan: First Kill (2022)

Welcome to Mother of Fears – a monthly column that will explore the various roles that mothers play within the horror genre. Mothers are a staple feature in horror movies, and yet, their stories, motivations, representations, and relationships with their children are so varied and complex that we never feel like we’re watching the same story twice. Every month I will take a look at a different mother from the world of horror, explore their story, and look at how they fit into the broader representation of women in horror.

Spoiler Warning: This editorial contains spoilers for Orphan (2009) and Orphan: First Kill (2022)

2022 saw Esther return to our screens with the prequel Orphan: First Kill (2022). And while some may have been worried that we were going to see the same story from Orphan (2009) all over again, this look back into Esther’s past managed to give us a creative spin as we explore what happened with the first family she was welcomed into. 

We first meet Esther (real name Leena) as a psychiatric patient at the Saarne Institute. After making her escape and claiming her first victims, she scours the internet to see which missing children she resembles. Leena is looking for someone to con, and to get out of Estonia, so she plays on her child-like appearance to make sure this happens as quickly as possible. 

After being discovered by a police officer, Leena claims her parents are in America, and that she is Esther Albright, who has been missing for the past four years. And so we meet the Albright family. There’s mother Tricia, her artist husband Allen, and their teenage son, Gunnar. The family seem relatively happy, although we get hints of Tricia and Gunnar teaming up and Allen being left on the outside. Allen seems to be the most deeply affected by Esther’s disappearance, and so her popping up across the world seems like the answer to his prayers. 

But it’s Tricia who travels across to the Russian embassy to be reunited with Esther and bring her back home. We’re not shown the discussion on why she travels over her husband. Maybe she feels it's her default right as Esther’s mother. Maybe she wants to meet Esther before introducing her to everyone else to scope out any problems. Maybe only one parent could go as someone needed to stay at home with Gunnar. Whatever the reason, Tricia greets her missing daughter alone and arranges for travel back to America. 

LISTEN TO OUR HORROR PODCAST!

Leena may look like Esther, but Tricia seems to pick up on the strange vibes she’s giving out right away. Not only does Esther have a strong accent, but she dresses differently and is extremely skilled at several pursuits she previously didn’t show any interest in. She also has a very loose story about how she was taken by a woman four years ago and has been pretending to be her daughter ever since.

When Tricia and Esther return home, Allen is delighted to greet them at the airport, as the emotion over finally being reunited with his missing daughter overwhelms him. Gunnar, however, seems even more mistrusting than his mother. 

Esther is welcomed into the plush family home, with promises that her parents will make up for all the missing birthdays and Christmases with whatever presents she would like. Her room has everything a little girl could ask for, and Esther seems to have hit the jackpot. It was mentioned at the Saarne Institute that Esther’s usual technique is to play the innocent child before robbing the family and making her escape. And that is her plan this time around too now that she’s been transported to America. The only problem is Allen. 

---

🧟‍♀️HELP US STAY UNDEAD🧟

We are a small & independent online magazine.
If you enjoy our content please consider donating or becoming a member.
Ghouls Gang members also get access to bonus podcasts, articles and much more.
Your contribution really makes the difference and helps us stay undead!
💜Thank You💜

---

Esther and Allen have been spending a lot of time together sharing their love of art. Allen is a professional artist, and Esther is a very talented drawer. Allen is delighted to share his passion with his daughter, as he remarks it was something she wasn’t interested in before. He’s also incredibly impressed by her talent, so the two end up alone in his studio frequently. Esther finds herself falling for Allen, and even though she makes her escape from the family home, she decides to return and see how events will play out with her pretend father.

Things get complicated when Detective Donnan tries to involve himself after Esther returns because he played such a large role in her disappearance investigation. He clearly has his worries about Esther, so he steals a record from her room so he can run the fingerprints on it. He quickly discovers that the prints don’t match, but Esther isn’t far behind and is intent on killing him to keep her secret. However, it’s Tricia who finishes the job, after following her daughter to Donnan’s house. 

And this is when we discover the real secret about the mother of the Albright family. Tricia has known the whole time that Esther isn’t her real daughter, and the reason she knows this for a fact is the real Esther is dead. Everything we’ve seen so far with Tricia suddenly makes a lot more sense and accounts for the level of mistrust she displayed towards her daughter on what should have been a joyous occasion.

We’ve seen Tricia keeping a close eye on Esther, especially when she’s spending time alone with Allen. We also see Tricia trying on several occasions to see what is inside Esther’s book that she keeps close at all times. But why would Tricia kill a detective to cover up Esther’s lie? And why would she head over to Russia in the first place to pick up a person she knows full well isn’t her child?

One reason is she knows how badly Allen is missing Esther, and so being able to make their family whole again and heal the rift that has grown between them seems like a good enough motive. However, the main reason Tricia has gone to such extreme lengths to hide the fact that Esther is a cuckoo is that it was Gunnar who killed the real Esther four years ago. Tricia has gone through all this trouble and thrown her family into a ridiculous situation to protect her son. 

While we don’t know the exact actions which led to Esther’s death, it turns out she died during a fight with Gunnar. And while she had already lost one child, Tricia wasn’t willing to lose two by allowing Gunnar to be punished for what he did to his sister. So instead, she decided to cover the death up and lie to her husband for all these years. 

This reveal shows that those hints we got about Gunnar and Tricia being on one side of things while Allen is on the other were accurate. Tricia and her son have been keeping this terrible secret together for years, and both of their worlds have been rocked by Esther showing up. 

Tricia may be trying to keep her son safe by not handing him over to the police, but the fact she is so willing to toss Esther aside and take her son’s side is chilling. Rather than worrying about Gunnar’s behaviour and stopping to consider the wider ramifications of him being so angry and violent that he killed his little sister without a second thought, Tricia thinks only of keeping him safe and keeping what remains of their family together.

She seems to have a very ‘boys will be boys’ attitude and tries to claim that it wasn’t his fault. Her overbearing and overprotective approach to her son is toxic, and it’s something that Gunnar leans into because it makes his life easier. He has this knowledge over his mother, which no doubt helps with getting his way, but he’s also seen the lengths she will go to to keep him safe.

Leena shares her real identity with Tricia, and in perhaps an even more strange turn of events, she agrees to keep her secret and allow her to live in the family home as Esther for the sake of her husband. She also knows that if Esther disappears again it will draw unwanted suspicion on the family, and that’s something she cannot afford. By bringing Esther into the secret with Gunnar, Tricia has ensured that Allen is the only person left on the outside again, thinking his family is perfect and happy.

And Esther agrees because Tricia helps her get rid of Detective Donnan’s body, and it will give her a safe place to stay until she works out the next step in her plan. It may have all worked out quite well if it weren’t for the men in the Albright family. To begin with, Esther is still getting far too close to Allen, and now that Tricia knows Esther is an adult and has feelings for her husband, she’s uncomfortable with them being alone so much. She also uses her knowledge to taunt Esther, knowing that she will never be able to act on her feelings because she’s already established herself as Allen’s daughter.

Gunnar also complicates the situation, because he knows about Esther’s true identity and knows that she won’t want to blow her cover. And so he also chooses to taunt her as his mother does, which is perhaps a bold move considering how many people Esther has killed or injured so far. Gunnar thinks he’s untouchable, and he threatens that if Esther becomes too much of a problem he’ll simply do to her what he did to his real sister. All this suggests that the real Esther’s death may not have been so much of an accident after all, and perhaps Gunnar takes pleasure in exerting his power over those seemingly weaker, smaller, and younger than him.

LISTEN TO OUR HORROR PODCAST!

However, Tricia isn’t able to keep up the illusion for too long, and she soon plans ways she can get rid of Esther once and for all. After a few back-and-forth attacks between the two women, Tricia ropes in Gunnar to help her get the job done. Not only is he the only other person who knows her secrets, but Tricia knows he’s more than capable of getting his hands dirty and committing murder. Tricia tries to poison Esther, which is quite a hands-off approach to murder, but Gunnar seems like he’s only too willing to face Esther in person and rid the family of her.

However, both of them have underestimated the things Esther will do to stay alive and a one-on-one showdown between Esther and Gunnar sees him die at the hands of two of his favourite weapons - his crossbow and his fencing sword. With both her children taken from her, Tricia chases Esther around the house and eventually onto the roof as the house catches fire around them. 

Allen turns up in time to head to the roof to save his remaining family, but with both Tricia and Ester hanging from the gutter, he’s only able to save one. And while both women try to plead their case and blame the other for their situation, Allen decides to save Esther because he’s lost his daughter once and he doesn’t want to lose her again. This means Tricia falls to her death as Allen tries to comfort Esther and ensure she’s not hurt.

While Allen finds out pretty quickly that Esther isn’t really his daughter, Tricia dies knowing that he picked his daughter over her. He couldn’t see past Esther’s disguise and lies, and his undying love for his daughter was always going to win against the feelings he had for Tricia. Tricia welcomed Esther into her home to try and repair her marriage and make Allen happy, but the minute she did that she sealed her fate because of how strongly he felt for Esther. 

Tricia took very extreme steps to try and save her family and ensure they could live as close to normal as possible, but in the end, she lost everything. Not only did she have to watch her son die and her house burn around her, but she had to deal with the fact that Esther won Allen’s affection as Tricia fell to her death and died on the driveway below.

This may be seen as an extreme version of love between herself and Gunnar, but it’s a cruel way for her to treat her younger child. When she needed her most, when only her mother could fight for justice for her, Tricia chose to side with her son and throw Esther’s body down a dark hole in the middle of nowhere. She lied about Esther to her husband, and though she felt she was being kind to him, she kept this hope alive in him which meant he was never really at peace. If he had known Esther died four years ago, he may have been able to find some closure and move on. It seems each parent in the Albright family had a favourite child and in the end, it tore the family apart.

RELATED ARTICLES

---

---

---