E047 | Orphan (2009) – Adoption at the Movies We have been dying to do a horror movie on the pod, and this week we get our chance! 2009's Orphan stars Peter Saarsgard and Vera Farmiga as a wealthy couple who have two children and, after the tragic loss of a third child, adopt a psychopathic, nine-year-old Russian orphan with a mysterious past. Legendary film critic Roger Ebert didn't hate this one; he rated in 3 ½ out of four stars saying, "You want a good horror film about a child from hell? You got one." Not all of us were so generous with our complements for this one. Join podcast journalist Haley Radke, filmmaker Kristal Parke, and cultural critic Sullivan Summer as we carve up this adoptee horror classic. Orphan was written by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Alex Mace. It was directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. This episode of Adoption Pop! aired on October 28, 2026. In it we discussed and/or relied upon: Orphanages, as depicted in the film, no longer exist in the US, though institutional and group homes do. Yes, Sullivan did Google "can a child drag a dead body" because she was trying to confirm or deny Kristal's on-air assertion that the scene where Esther and Max drag the dead nun's body from the roadside was "ridiculous." This search is not to be used against her in a court of law. (And, FWIW, it depends. Apparently). Esther, it turns out, is not from Russia, but from Estonia. The Curious Case of Natalia Grace investigated whether Natalia Barnett was an exploited Ukrainian child, or a dangerous adult pretending to be a child. Natalia was adopted in 2010, one year after Orphan premiered in theaters. Life imitates art imitates life, as Esther in Orphan was based on Barbora Šklová, a Czech woman in her 30s who posed as a 13-year-old girl to infiltrate a family and abuse the children in the household. Rachel Abramowitz, "Quick Takes: Uproar Over Orphan Movie," LA Times (July 10, 2009) Melissa Fay Greene "The New Movie Parents Hate," The Daily Beast (July 15, 2009) Sara Nelson, "How One Working Mom Adopted 5 Kids—and Lived to Write About It," Oprah.com (May 2011) "Interview with Melissa Fay Greene," Adoptivefamilies.com Melissa Fay Greene, "A Son's Suicide: The Last Person on Earth," AfterTalk It is a long-cited statistic that adopted people are 4 times more likely to attempt suicide than non-adopted people. The study supporting that finding is here. A more recent study was published in March 2026, finding adoptees 35 times more likely to attempt suicide than non-adoptees. Adoptee Remembrance Day is October 30. According to founder and adoptee Pamela Karanova, it is a day to remember the adoptees who died too soon through suicide, homicide, abuse, neglect, systemic failures, deportation, addiction, homelessness, institutionalization, and other adoption-related tragedies that are too often ignored or forgotten. The Adoption Pop! theme music is The Chase by Audiogreen. We'd love to hear what you thought of this episode, and what you'd like for us to cover in the future. Find, follow, like, and subscribe to Adoption Pop! at our website, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. Podcast journalist Haley Radke is at adopteeson.com and on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Filmmaker Kristal Parke is at kristalparke.net, on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. Cultural critic Sullivan Summer is at sullivansummer.com and on Instagram.
