It was necessary to the plot for the child to be an orphan. It's about a 33 year old woman with a hormone/growth disorder as well as a severe mental illness who poses as a child and gets herself taken in by family after family. She obviously couldn't have been a child born to the mother because then the plot would have been, well, IMPOSSIBLE. As for the title of the film, it was most likely called "Orphan" because of how pivotal to the movie it was that she was, well, a freaking ORPHAN.You've got to be pretty seriously closed and simple minded to think that people are going to watch this movie and think all orphans are like that or that adopting a child will invite evil into the home. It's a horror movie about an instance or possibility so incredibly rare, it's not actually a real concern. When films are made about realistic, pressing concerns and are designed to scare the crap out of people, they're called documentaries, not horror flicks.I wish you had the wisdom to know the difference, and trust that we all do too.

I totally agree. I mean, they NEVER said or suggested that orphans are bad. And as far as other couples being "scared" that this will happen...well there's a 9999999999999999999999999999% chance that that will actually happen. Even if it did, they did say that she was the most dangerous, so they must have had the tightest security making sure she didnt escape the mental hospital. So this isn't either suggesting that mental people are bad either.

This also raises the concern of how many people who have signed the petition have actually SEEN THE MOVIE. It's just complete ignorance that one would say that this movie suggests orphans are bad. As Juliet868 said, Esther is a 33 year old with a disorder. If people would actually take the time to watch the movie they would learn this information. Instead, people just run off with bias, and that makes them completely ignorant to the topic at hand.

Here's my beef with the movie after having SEEN it! and it has nothing to do with orphans or deaf people. This first thing that bothered me was that they said, "It's okay to be different." The family was a rather wealthy, white, conservative-in-appearance, but average family. The victims, of course! Now they adopt a dark-haired girl with an accent who happens to be unique, she's artistic and very talented, dresses different..... well naturally she's just bad in every way. Because people who look different, have a funny accent and are unusually talented and just unique in general are just bad. Is that correct? THIS is an age-old Hollywood stereotype (thank so much Hollywood) that whether or not it's understated or overstated seems to plague the unconscious minds of the average, suburban middle-class. O right, the girl also knows how to use her table manners, .....what the hell is her problem. . is something along the lines of what the boy says (you know, the average white male) Let's just come out with it....weird-looking people who are unique and talented and aren't the status quo are JUST BADDD!!! This makes me sick! Its a prejudice propigated and continued on and on and on thanks to these Hollywood stereotypes. As if they weren't they didn't exist just fine on their own. I do realize that a horror has to play upon our fears and that Hollywood has to compete with countries that have so much more to offer creatively than Hollywood does (shock full of nepotism as well), there's the Japan/Korea, etc., European, Spainish filmworld to compete with (oh right! the director is from Spain) no wonder because the movie was better in terms of the fear factor than most American horrors let's face it. . . . so aside from what the Christian community has to say in regards to children and adoption, I feel there are other stereotypes that this movie is inciting and igniting all over again and this is what I find upsetting here... Let's just persecute people who are different. There is prejudice at every angle here.

@ Isabel They make her pretty much the perfect girl in the beginning of the movie so there is a bigger contrast when she starts to act out a bit and finally start killing off people. What family who wants to adopt a child wouldnt want that child to be very talented at painting, great manners, smart, religious, dresses very proper, and is interested in being a part of the family with wanting to learn the piano and learning sign language. When you first see her painting and talking to the father she doesnt look "different" at all, she had more brownish curly hair and didnt talk with an accent at all. And lets remember that she is pretending this whole time and could and would have acted in any way to please the parents and manipulate them. So if any demographic has an issue with this movie it is the psychotic killer Russian dwarf prostitute community. So instead of thinking that the movie is about an Orphan all the people complaining about the movie should read the title as "psychotic killer Russian dwarf prostitute" and think if anyone is really afraid they may accidentally adopt one of them.