The Colemans really don't need any more problems.

Wife and mother Kate is depressed over a recent miscarriage. She's also a recovering alcoholic who feels guilty about an accident on her watch that nearly took the life of her youngest child. That same traumatized child is also hearing impaired. Husband and father John is a one-time philanderer who hasn't been able to put trust back into the marriage. Oldest child Daniel merely suffers from near-adolescent attitude.

Kate and John feel that they can heal their troubled family by adopting a child to take the place of the one Kate lost.

That sets up "Orphan," a psycho-killer horror movie that collapses under the weight of an implausible and ultimately ridiculous storyline.

To the movie's credit, the acting far surpasses the usual requirements and the production looks good. But that's kind of like putting a prom dress on a pig.

Director Jaume Collet-Serra cut his teeth on "House of Wax," the vehicle that was supposed to launch an acting career for Paris Hilton. If he hangs in there, he might get a decent script one day.

Kate and John (Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard) decide to check out an orphanage for girls and there John is charmed by 9-year-old Esther.

Played with mounting malevolence by Isabelle Fuhrman, she's a painting and musical prodigy who wins over both the Colemans. Before you can say watch out, she's ensconced in the household.

Oldest son Daniel (Jimmy Bennett) is immediately resentful and justifiably so because he's the victim of instant lack of attention. Deaf daughter Max, charmingly played by Aryana Engineer, is hopeful and trusting.

But bad things begin to happen around the Russian immigrant with the funny clothes and the furtive, evil facial expressions.

We expect to be manipulated by the director in this kind of thing much as Esther manipulates her family. But Colett-Serra jumps the gun. He invests the most innocuous incidents with menace through the use of a foreboding score and camera trickery before any reason for apprehension enters the proceedings. This is a horror movie and everybody knows it, his reasoning must go, so I'll suspend any notion of storytelling fair play.

Though the whole family plays victim to Esther's wiles, the only one who doesn't suspect her treachery is John. Thus Sarsgaard's character descends into idiocy. Farmiga and Fuhrman give the movie its real dramatic tension through their mutual and evolving antagonism. Engineer is the little sweetie pie you want to hug and Bennett's instincts are on the money though his character is that of a little jerk.

Ultimately, "Orphan" turns out to be one of those weird and warped enterprises that's somehow watchable because of its sheer audacity to exist. It's creepy more than scary. The commitment of its actors is admirable. And its ability to launch moments of unintended audience smirks is unquestionable.

Farmiga, a fine actress, will unfortunately have to live with one of her unintentionally funny exclamations for a long time.