There Are a Lot of Similarities Between the Movie 'Orphan' and the Story of Natalia Grace
It sure seems like life could be imitating art, which was already imitating life.
Published Feb. 20 2025, 2:42 p.m. ET
The world first became aware of Natalia Grace in 2019 after she appeared on an episode of Dr. Phil. Four years later, there was a multi-season docuseries from Investigation Discovery initially titled The Curious Case of Natalia Grace.
In March 2025, Hulu is releasing Good American Family, which is inspired by the events that occurred after she was adopted. Prior to that, Lifetime brought us The Bad Orphan. Speaking of orphans, is the movie Orphan also based on Natalia Grace?
Is 'Orphan' based on the story of Natalia Grace? They have a lot in common.
Although Orphan is not based on Natalia's experiences, some believe it was inspired by the strange story of Barbora Skrlova. According to CBS News, in 2007 the 33-year-old Czech woman fooled people into believing she was a 13-year-old boy. She was attending a school in Norway while passing for a child named Adam.
A woman produced a Czech passport with Skrlova's picture on it, claiming he was her son. At the time, the 5-foot-2-inch Skrlova had shaved her head and bound her breasts in order to complete the transformation. Despite this, school authorities did say they noticed Adam acting in a bizarre way, but they chalked it up to kids being kids. Ingjerd Eriksen, a principal at the school, told Oslo newspaper Dagbladet (via CBS News) that, "Children at that age can be so different."
Skrlova had tried this before, in the Czech city of Brno where she posed as a 13-year-old girl adopted by Klara Mauerova. While there, Skrlova allegedly saw Mauerova abusing her two biological sons and was wanted as a witness. In order to avoid being investigated, Skrlova traveled with friends to Denmark and eventually landed in Norway. She was sent to prison for five years and was released in 2011. Her whereabouts are unknown.
Social media sleuths think the Barnetts got their ideas from 'Orphan.'
In December 2023, a user popped into the Natalia Grace subreddit where they asked if the people who adopted Natalia had seen the movie Orphan. Apparently, there are a ton of similarities between the film and what Michael and Kristine Barnett accused Natalia Grace of doing. The couple claimed she was not actually a child, then alleged that she tried to kill them. That sure does sound like Orphan.
Someone in the replies pointed out that in an episode of The Curious Case of Natalia Grace, Michael is showing off his movie theater-style popcorn maker. He said eating that popcorn makes him nostalgic because they are a "movie family" that watches around two or three movies each week. The Barnetts adopted Natalia in the summer of 2010, exactly a year after Orphan was released. It's totally possible that they all watched it.