| Movie DescriptionKate Coleman (Vera Farmiga) and John Coleman (Peter Sarsgaard) are experiencing strains in their marriage after Kate's third child was stillborn. The loss is particularly hard on Kate, who is still recovering from a drinking habit. They adopt Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman), a 9-year-old Russian girl, from the local orphanage. While Kate and John's deaf-mute daughter Max (Aryana Engineer) embraces Esther almost immediately, their son Daniel (Jimmy Bennett) is less welcoming.
Kate grows suspicious when Esther expresses far more knowledge of sex than would be expected for a child her age. She is further alarmed when Sister Abigail (C. C. H. Pounder), the head of the orphanage, warns her and John about Esther's tendency to be around when things go wrong. Esther overhears this and kills Sister Abigail by bludgeoning her with a hammer. She convinces Max to help her hide the weapon in their treehouse. Meanwhile, Kate's attempts to tell John about Esther's ways fall on deaf ears. Esther plays Kate and John against each other and is able to turn Kate's psychiatrist against her.
Daniel decides to retrieve the hammer used to kill Sister Abigail to prove Esther's guilt. He announces his plans to Max and is overheard by Esther, who sets the treehouse on fire. Daniel falls trying to escape the fire. Esther tries to kill him with a rock, but Max shoves her out of the way. Daniel is hospitalized from his fall. Esther unsuccessfully tries to kill him at the hospital by smothering him with a pillow, but doctors save him. Kate, knowing what happened, furiously slaps Esther and knocks her down. Before Kate can do anything else to Esther, she is stopped and restrained by John and a couple of orderlies. As John takes Esther and Max home, the doctors sedate a furious and thrashing Kate.
That night, Esther tries to seduce a drunken John, who finally realizes Kate might have been right. He threatens to send her back to the orphanage. Meanwhile as Kate is coming out of sedation, she receives a call on her cell phone from the Saarne Institute. Dr. Väravra (Karel Roden), reveals that Esther is actually a 33 year-old woman named Leena Klammer. She has hypopituitarism, a disorder that stunted her physical growth, and has spent most of her life posing as a little girl. The doctor tells Kate that Leena is extremely dangerous and violent. Esther, angry and hurt at being spurned, ransacks her room before deciding to kill John. Max sees this and hides in her closet. Kate rushes home, only to find John dead. Leena fetches a gun from their safe and shoots Kate in the arm before she goes to search for Max. While firing at Max in their greenhouse, Kate manages to break through from above Leena and knock her out.
Leena follows Kate outside to a frozen pond where they struggle as Max watches from a hill above. Max maneuvers herself to grab the gun that was dropped by Kate during the struggle. She shoots at Leena but breaks the ice instead, causing Kate and Leena to drop into the water below. After a brief struggle under the ice, Kate climbs out followed by Leena. Leena begs Kate not to let her die, calling her "Mommy" while holding a knife behind her back. Kate furiously responds that she's not Leena's mother and kicks her in the face, snapping her neck and sending her back into the pond where she dies. Max and Kate are met by the police moments after. |
