There are so many different permutations of the horror genre, but one of the regular staples is to put a creepy kid at the center of the story, as seen in countless movies like Orphan.
Jaume Collet-Serra’s chiller sees a couple decide to adopt a child after suffering the loss of an unborn baby, but the newest addition to the family is hiding a dangerous and sinister secret.
Thrills, chills, high concepts and major plot twists are the order of the day across the following ten movies, all of which will make you suspicious of children and afraid to sleep with the lights off.
10 Creepy Horror Movies Like Orphan
1. Case 39 (2009)
Christian Alvert’s supernatural horror stars Renee Zellweger as a social worker who assumes custody of a child after meeting her cruel and violent parents.
Of course, things aren’t that simple, and a series of strange occurrences seem to follow the girl wherever she goes, and events spiral beyond the lead character’s comprehension.
Movies like Orphan work best when there’s a sense of realism and believability surrounding the story, but Case 39 will appeal to horror fans who prefer their scares tinged with the outlandish.
2. The Uninvited (2009)
A young girl returns home after spending time in a psychiatric facility, but the life she comes back to is markedly different from the one she left behind.
Emily Browning leads The Guard Brothers’ creepy tale, which sees the ghost of the girl’s dead mother seemingly return from beyond the grave to haunt her father’s new fiancee.
Teaming up with her sister to try and separate fact from fiction, The Uninvited builds tension before a massive third act rug pull that’s become synonymous with horror movies like Orphan.
3. Insidious (2010)
Saw creators James Wan and Leigh Whannell re-teamed for Insidious, and based on that caliber of talent a winning exercise in modern horror was the least to be expected.
On that front the duo certainly deliver, with Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne on stellar form as the parents of a comatose child who becomes possessed by a demon tied to their new home.
A spin on the haunted house formula, Insidious takes many of the tropes associated with movies like Orphan and flips them upside down to genuinely terrifying effect.
4. Shelter (2010)
Skeptics always get more than they bargained for in horror movies when they discover that the supernatural is very real, and Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein’s Shelter has great fun with the idea.
Julianne Moore’s psychiatrist is introduced to a patient who assumes the personalities of murder victims, which eventually puts her and her daughter directly in harm’s way.
Movies like Orphan don’t always have to be straightforward horrors, and Shelter takes that idea and runs with it by starting out as a psychological drama before completely pivoting towards the climax.
5. Stoker (2013)
More of a psychological thriller than the majority of movies like Orphan, Park Chan-wook’s slow-burning Stoker tightens the narrative screws as the plot wears on, creating incredible tension.
After her father dies in a car accident, an 18 year-old girl is left in the care of her estranged and mentally unstable mother, and revealing much more would be leaning too far into spoiler territory.
There’s an uneasy atmosphere hovering over the entire movie as the plot moves from one unpredictable scenario to the next, and you’ll tie yourself in knots trying to figure it out.
6. The Messengers (2007)
Sam Raimi produces the Pang Brothers low budget supernatural horror, which springs plenty of surprises from a plot that fans of movies like Orphan will be more than familiar with.
A family trades the big city for a small-town farm, but the children soon start seeing things and suffering attacks from an unknown entity, but the parents refuse to believe them.
Kristen Stewart can always be relied on for a strong central performance, and what The Messengers lacks in originality it makes up for in atmosphere and a series of perfectly timed jump scares.
7. The Boy (2016)
William Brent Bell blends the haunted house and creepy kid sub-genres of horror to great effect in The Boy, which offers a resolution that’s both entirely shocking but also completely foreshadowed.
A nanny turns up to a remote English village for work, only to discover that she’ll be looking after a life-size doll instead of a real child, with her employers insisting she treat it as human.
Unconvinced, she breaks the rules set by her paymasters, and a series of disturbing events have her believing that the doll is alive, but in movies like The Orphan things are never quite that simple.
8. The Unborn (2009)
Creepy kid horror movies like Orphan don’t always have to focus on a single child, and David S. Goyer’s The Unborn is all about the idea of twins.
A young woman discovers a family curse that dates back to World War II, where her grandmother brought her twin brother back to life, and the repercussions have haunted them for generations.
The spirit in question can take over any living subject as it tries to gain entry into the world of the living, leading to a spate of nightmares and hauntings, not to mention the requisite twist ending.
9. The Ring (2002)
Gore Verbinski’s remake of the Japanese horror classic hits all of the same plot beats, but adds an extra layer of Hollywood sheen and star power to the proceedings.
An urban legend about a videotape draws in a skeptical reporter, who soon discovers that a spate of deaths are directly linked with the footage, which she obviously goes ahead and watches.
With seven days until the curse claims her, the race is on to try and save herself from a terrifying fate and a ghoul that’s one of the creepiest antagonists to be found in any movies like Orphan.
10. The Visit (2015)
The only entry on our list of movies like Orphan where the kids are alright, M. Night Shyamalan’s low budget return to form is genius in its simplicity, with the big reveals hiding in plain sight.
Two young children go to stay with their grandparents for a week, but they soon find that they’re elder relatives enjoy some strange habits and unusual behavior.
A twist is to be expected from anything with Shyamalan’s name on it, but The Visit still works thanks to a deft blend of laughs and scares, tied together through a found footage approach.