SPOILERS APPEAR FURTHER DOWN
I hope that obscenely blatant disclaimer is enough. The DVD and Blu-ray editions of Orphan include very little in terms of extras. There's a featurette called Mama's Little Devils: Bad Seeds and Evil Children, but more interesting is the set of three or four additional scenes that include an alternate ending. I consider the "orphans aren't crazy demons" PSA that auto-runs before the feature a bonus.
I had the twist ending of Orphan spoiled for me by various "critics" that had spoiled it on Twitter. Mere minutes later, I asked a friend to confirm whether what I'd been told was accurate. It turned out to be exactly what was "wrong with Esther". That gimmicky twist is exactly why this movie is perfectly-branded under the Dark Castle label. William Castle would be gushing tears of joy if he'd seen this thing go out under his tribute brand. I'm going to touch on both that spoiler and the ending in the paragraphs that follow, so you have been more than warned. Suffice to say the movie is worth a rental, especially with the couple of "alternate version" aspects to the extras.
SPOILERS FOLLOW
I didn't watch the movie until the other morning. The movie is diverting overall, and worth watching at least once. I was somewhat surprised that I had as much fun with this film from Jaume Collet-Serra, who also directed the House of Wax remake and Goal! II. The investment of the actors into their characters is so complete that even the most implausible, illogical moments don't derail the thing. Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard are quite good as the parents, and Isabelle Fuhrman is ok for a kid actor as Esther until it's revealed that she's a 33-year-old pituitary dwarf. At that point, she really blew me away. Esther went from generic evil kid to one-shot and it's gone, wow-inducing force of evil. The alternate ending smells of "the studio wants one that's open-ended for a franchise, let's shoot something no one wants to see".
The other alternate scenes don't include the completely different final confrontation or lead-up that would have needed to happen for Esther to remain the only survivor. I wonder if they ever tested that version of the movie. Not because I'm some kind of a freak, but because it's one of the diciest things to handle, I wonder how they killed the little deaf girl.
The DVD is $17.99 at Amazon, and the Blu-ray is $19.99. They hit the street this past Tuesday the 27th.