** Spoilers **
I Liked 'Orphan' More When It Was Called 'The Good Son'
http://www.horrorsquad.com/2009/07/27/i-liked-orphan-more-when-it-was-called-the-good-son/
By Eric Snider
Actually, the headline is misleading. I didn't like either film. But if you saw the new thriller Orphan this weekend and it seemed familiar, perhaps you're remembering the 1993 Macaulay Culkin fiasco The Good Son. It's not just that they're both about evil kids; the similarities run deeper than that. Here's a list, which is slightly spoiler-ish for both films.
In The Good Son and Orphan:
The setting is New England in the winter.
A mother mourns the death of her baby sometime earlier.
A past tragedy occurred involving water.
There is danger in a treehouse.
Broken ice on a frozen pond leads to near-tragedy.
A young boy is threatened with a sharp object (box-cutter or scissors) against his throat while he lies on a bed.
A psychiatrist interviews the evil child, finds nothing wrong with him or her, and believes it is the child's main opponent who is the problem.
The evil child kills an animal.
The evil child deliberately causes a car accident.
The evil child is discovered to have been responsible for a prior death.
The evil child forces another child to help hide evidence.
A little sister is menaced and almost killed.
Both movies stink.