Is ‘Orphan: First Kill’ Based on a True Story? (2024)

Hollywood has a long tradition of “ripped from the headlines” horror movies and TV shows but rarely are those so-called “true stories” actually very true at all.

Case in point: The recent 2022 horror movie on Paramount+, Orphan: First Kill, as well as the 2009 horror movie it’s based on, Orphan, which are certainly not true stories. The franchise follows a little girl named Esther (played by Isabelle Fuhrman) who’s not actually a little girl at all. Rather, she’s a thirty-something woman with a rare disorder that prevents her body from physically aging. Needless to say, it’s a bit of a surprise for her adopted family in both movies. Especially when she starts killing people.

We hope we don’t have to tell you that this is not something that happened in real life. Yes, there is a bizarre news story out there about a couple in Indiana who claimed their adopted daughter was actually 22, and were then charged with abandonment and neglect. However, that all took place at least a year after the first Orphan movie came out in 2009, and therefore did not inspire the film. Read on to learn more about all the ways that Orphan and Orphan: First Kill are not based on a true story.

Is Orphan: First Kill based on a true story?

No. Both the 2009 horror movie Orphan and the 2022 prequel Orphan: First Kill are fictional movies that are not based on true stories. They are completely made up. There is no “true story” of a real girl named Esther who was secretly a 30-year-old that tricked a family into adopting her. You should just enjoy this as a scary story that is absolutely fake, and nothing more.

That said, the disease that Esther’s character has in the movies is real, even if it wouldn’t necessarily manifest in real life in the way it does in the Orphan movies. Esther has panhypopituitarism, which, according to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia website, is a hormonal condition that causes the secretion of all hormones by the pituitary gland to be reduced. This can abnormally slow a child’s growth, delay puberty, and cause a number of health problems in children. Obviously, that’s not quite as exciting as the whole “30-year-old woman looks like a 9-year-old child” interpretation of the disorder that Orphan: First Kill chooses to adapt.

The first Orphan movie was rumored to be inspired by a bizarre case of a 33-year-old woman Barbora Skrlova who posed as a missing 13-year-old Czech boy to evade authorities. You can read about the case via CBS News. However, this reporter can’t find any evidence that screenwriter David Leslie Johnson indeed based his movie on that real-life case.

There was also a rumor, perpetuated by the Daily Mail a few years back, that the Orphan movie was based on a real Indiana couple who said they adopted a daughter who was much older than they were told, and that she tried to kill them. However, that couple, Michael and Kristine Barnett, were charged with felony neglect in 2019.

According to an AP report from 2019, authorities said the now-divorced couple adopted a Ukrainian orphan with dwarfism in 2010. A doctor estimated her to be 8 years old at the time. In 2013, the couple legally changed her age to 22, rented her an apartment, moved to Canada, and left the child behind. They paid for the first year of her apartment but did not provide additional financial support.

According to the South Bend Tribune, Michael Barnett told police that, before the couple left, his wife had coached the girl to tell people that she was 22 if questioned and to explain that she just looked young.

According to a review of the 2021 case filing for State v. Barnett, the State of Indiana charged Michael and Kristine each with six counts of neglect of a dependent and two counts of conspiracy to commit neglect of a dependent. They have not yet been convicted. In January 2022, the Indiana Supreme Court rejected the case. Whether the couple will be convicted remains to be seen.

But the point is, this is a complicated legal battle that has very little to do with the plot of the Orphan movie. In fact, there is no way the first Orphan film could have been inspired by the Barnetts, as it came out a full year before the Barnetts adopted the child in question.

In conclusion: Don’t turn to Hollywood for news stories or medical advice. It’s rarely accurate!