Orphan, the psychological horror movie a couple of couple who undertake a psychopathic nine-year-old woman, drew new consideration after the story of Natalia Grace, whose story made headlines in 2023 and was featured within the Investigation Discovery docuseries The Curious Case of Natalia Grace. The case raised stunning similarities between the movie and her real-life experiences.
Discover out extra concerning the movie and its potential connection to Natalia Grace.
When Did Orphan Come Out?
Orphan was launched in 2009.
Who Is Natalia Grace?
Grace was born in Ukraine to a 24-year-old mom who gave her up for adoption as a consequence of her dwarfism. After spending time in an orphanage and unstable houses, she was delivered to the U.S. via worldwide adoption by New Hampshire couple Dyan and Gary Ciccone in 2008, in line with court docket paperwork and PEOPLE. Nonetheless, they later gave her up, and in 2010, she was adopted by the Barnetts, an Indiana couple with three sons.
Grace was six when she was adopted by Kristine and Michael Barnett. Nonetheless, the Barnetts grew suspicious of her age after they claimed to have found that she had pubic hair, was menstruating, and had developed many grownup tooth. In 2012, they petitioned the Marion County probate court docket to legally change Grace’s start yr from 2003 to 1989. This course of, often known as “re-aging,” successfully reworked their 8-year-old daughter right into a 22-year-old grownup in a single day.
Was Orphan Based mostly on Natalia Grace’s Story?
The film Orphan was launched earlier than Grace was adopted by the Barnetts, so it couldn’t have been primarily based on her story. Nonetheless, Grace has talked about in Natalia Speaks that she believes the Barnetts’ allegations about her had been immediately impressed by the film Orphan.
“The issues that Kristine and Michael have stated that I’ve executed is a lie. It was all copied off the film ‘Orphan,’” Grace says within the documentary sequence. “Ukrainian woman, Russian woman, verify. Orphan, verify. All this loopy stuff. Standing on the finish of the mattress with a knife, verify.”
The film Orphan is claimed to be impressed by the story of Barbora Škrlová, a Czech lady in her 30s who posed as a 13-year-old in Norway. Škrlová, who had hypopituitarism — a uncommon situation affecting hormone manufacturing within the pituitary gland — was adopted by Klara Mauerova, a girl later accused of abusing her organic sons whereas Škrlová was in her care. In an try and evade Czech authorities and keep away from testifying in Mauerova’s child-abuse case, Škrlová, then 33 years previous, escaped to Norway, the place she posed as a 13-year-old boy named Adam.
She was ultimately captured by authorities in 2008, and her case gained consideration within the Czech Republic in mid-2007.
