There is something eerily strange about small children wreaking havoc on adults. Maybe it’s the fact that these diminutive little beings seem outwardly so innocent and harmless. We “adults” like to think of ourselves as always being in control of any situation — we know better — so when a child starts getting the upper hand and takes over, it’s more than a little unsettling and disconcerting. Horror and suspense films have wisely tapped into this inexplicable fear and created a virtual subgenre of “spooky little kid” titles over the years — movies from The Bad Seed and Village of the Damned eventually paved the way for more recent disturbing entries like The Exorcist, The Omen, and the super-creepy religious runts in Children of the Corn. Heck, even Big Wheel-riding Danny in The Shining and the well-dwelling ghost girl in The Ring are distant cousins to this evolving archetype. Whether they’re affecting weird, guttural voices or simply sitting and staring us down with wide-eyed indifference, there’s just something off-kilter about these hellish little hooligan

The latest movie in this expanding subgenre, Orphan, actually starts out with a promising premise and delivers what amounts to a fairly convincing thriller for the first two-thirds of its running time, but then completely implodes with a ridiculous final act that goes well beyond stretching the limits of all credibility. It’s really a shame, because director Jaume Collet-Serra actually builds a nice atmosphere of dread and suspense for the first 90 minutes here and more than redeems himself for helming the God-awful House of Wax remake, whose only redeeming quality was making Paris Hilton the victim of a horrific and gruesome death. Collet-Serra plays fast and loose with some of those tired horror movie clichés like the old medicine-cabinet mirror gag and the who’s-behind-the-door bit — both of which don’t end here with the predictable payoff, which I found refreshing for a change. Relative newcomer Isabelle Fuhrman also delivers a fine performance as the titular “orphan” named Esther — a seemingly-polite little Russian girl adopted by an American couple that soon discovers trouble is her middle name. Despite a faux Russian accent that occasionally slips into a semi-Irish brogue, Fuhrman effortlessly shifts from cute and precocious to conniving and devious at the drop of a dime. Her scowling stare — particularly when directed at her newly-adoptive brother — is pitch-perfect.

The unlucky duo that attempts to offer Esther a new family life here are Kate (Vera Farmiga) and John (Peter Sarsgaard) Coleman, a seemingly well-to-do couple who are going through a rough patch after the traumatic experience of finding out their third child was stillborn. Kate understandably freaks out and after losing her job and struggling with alcoholism, she finally feels the need to move on by adopting an older child. She and John visit a local orphanage and immediately take a liking to a smart but lonely nine-year-old Russian girl named Esther, who they eventually adopt. Esther is obviously mature and very intelligent for her age and she develops an easy rapport with the Coleman’s youngest daughter, Max (Aryana Engineer) — a deaf and mute girl who communicates with sign language. But the couple’s older son Daniel (Jimmy Bennett) doesn’t like or trust Esther from the get-go. Despite his instincts, both Kate and John work hard to help Esther adjust to becoming a fully-integrated member of the family. But Esther’s porcelain-doll veneer, which is only enhanced by her penchant for wearing frilly dresses with ribbons, soon starts to crack as she becomes prone to explosive fits of rage — mostly when anyone attempts to remove or question her about the ribbons that always cover her wrists and neck.

The innocent and trusting Max is nevertheless enamored with her new big sister and doesn’t immediately see anything odd about her … but Daniel suspects something. Meanwhile, Kate senses there may be something to Daniel’s suspicions and starts questioning Esther about a sudden rash of weird incidents such as the killing of a pigeon and a playground accident in which one of Esther’s schoolmates falls off a slide and breaks her ankle. Things quickly escalate when Sister Abigail (CCH Pounder) the superior from the orphanage comes to pay a visit and deliver some previously unknown news about Esther’s past. Despite this new revelation, however, Kate and John still feel that Esther deserves the benefit of the doubt and they agree to keep her. Esther, however, is threatened by Sister Abigail’s visit and follows the nun as she leaves the house, bludgeoning her with a hammer in front of the shocked Max. She forces Max to help her hide the body and murder weapon and then threatens to kill her if she tells anyone what happened. Esther likewise terrorizes Daniel with a box cutter later that night to stop him from saying anything disparaging to his mother or father about her.

Soon the bodies start piling up in Esther’s wake — some wounded, others worse — as she makes a beeline for Kate in a clumsy effort to separate her from her family and, more importantly, John. Preying on Kate’s past bouts of depression and her addiction to alcohol, Esther’s developing crush on John drives her to more bizarre and diabolical behavior and schemes involving a runaway car, a brazen game of Russian roulette, and a bit of near-fatal arson that finally sends Kate over the edge. It doesn’t help that John is only too quick to believe Kate has fallen off the wagon and that her constant complaints about Esther are recurring remnants of her past transgressions. The movie reaches a crescendo when Daniel ends up in the hospital and Kate blames everything on Esther, attacking her in front of doctors and nurses who immediately sedate her. With both Kate and Daniel out of commission and Max unable and unwilling to reveal what Esther has done, the newly-adopted daughter is free to go after John. But not before Kate’s dogged research into Esther’s past reveals a stunning bit of information that attempts to explain away the girl’s erratic and irrational behavior. It’s truly one of those “huh?” moments that leaves you scratching your head in disbelief and it pretty much belies the entire notion of Esther simply being a “bad seed.”