A
married couple named Kate (Vera Farmiga)
and John (Peter Sarsgaard) lose their
baby during a miscarriage due to Kate's
drinking and she tries to go to rehab due
to this incident and is tormented in her
nightmares about it all.
They decide to adopt a 9 year old child
at an orphange named Esther (Isabelle
Fuhrman) who seems to open up to them and
then take her to their home in which
Esther becomes very close to their
youngest child named Max (Aryana
Engineer) who is paritally deaf and mute
but however another sibling named Daniel
(Jimmy Bennett) doesn't seem to take a
liking to her and has a strange feeling
about her.
Esther attends to her new school only to
be tormented by her classmates namely one
named Brenda (Jamie Young) in which later
on Esther hurts her badly in a playground
and lies to her adopted parents about it.
Next they get a visit from Sister Abigail
(CCH Pounder) from the orphanage telling
them about mysterious deaths on people
when Esther is around in which she
eavesdrops on them and manipulates Max to
do a deadly deed for her after this
happens.
Kate starts to get suspicious with all
the bad things that are happening and
questioning Esther on all of this since
they don't seem to see eye to eye on
things but however John thinks she may be
drinking again since Esther is getting
along with him very well and being fooled
by him.
Esther threatens both Max and Daniel
about the consequences if they ever
confess to them what she is doing since
both are witnesses.
Kate tries to track down Esther's history
and finds out something terrifying about
this disturbed child.
A good
beginning which involved Kate Coleman by getting carried into a room while about
to be in labor as well as her crying
emotions and getting intense after
finding out that her child didn't make
it.
There's also some good conversations with both Kate and John by going into an orphanage to pick out a
child with some nice heartwarming
discussions between them and Esther which looked nice and
realistic as if you'd want to own her
right away.
A nice discussion with Sister Abigail by discussing this child and acting
caring about all of this which was quite
impressive.
There's nice shots between Esther and Max Coleman when they
first meet one another which looked very
natural and Esther trying to
understand sign language with her.
There's also a good moment with Daniel Coleman acting standoffish towards her which leaves a good impression that this
is not a good idea.
There's a good camera shot looking up on Esther walking down a staircase in a new dress
which looked impressive as well as her
getting a little cross with Kate when she tries to talk to her about it in
which this situation on this looked nicely
done showing someone's true colours.
There's a good shot on Esther entering a class with a teacher
introducing her and a nice nasty reaction
on her classmate Brenda which looked like a realistic look at a
kid bullying another one. There's a good
shot on Esther giving her a
nice cold evil stare.
Good tense moment on Daniel at the dinner table being vulgar about
his adopted sister which looked
believeably intense and dysfunctional
with alot of tense energy put into the
scene.
There's nice camera shots circling Esther in the hallway with Brenda and some of the other kids taunting her by taking a
bible away from her and a great close up
shot on her screaming out
loud which looked truly intense and
insane.
Many good close up shots on Brenda playing in a playground with surprise
shots on children playing
when she goes up near a slide which makes
you think something awful is going to
happen with how all of this was shot and
a nice shot on Esther lunging
towards her and pushing her off a cliff
of the slide as well as a good camera
looking up on Brenda when she is
on the ground crying which looked well
done.
There's a great intense quarrelling
sequence between both Kate and John about a situation
that happened which looked also
powerfully done.
Many good shots between the two
of them in a separate scene lusting with
one another and then a good shot on Esther catching them doing this with great
anxious moments between them after they
catch her watching them and feeling
guilty.
A good moment with Kate coming into a room with Esther sitting there expressionless and behaving
very disturbed when she tries to explain
to her about adult situations with her just being cold and blunt about it all
which looked good and twisted.
Good scene with Sister Abigail talking to both Kate and John about the child they adopted and about
tragedies that have happened when she was
around with a nice shot on Esther eavesdropping on all of this which looked
truly creepy.
Good moment with Esther manipulating Max to do
something by placing herself on the road
with a great shot on Sister Abigail driving and then swerving after she spots
her and then coming out to see if she was
okay and then a nice attack scene by Esther whacking her in the head with a hammer as
well as a good shot on Sister Abigail crawling along the ground in pain with Esther attacking and acting brutal by using the
hammer several times on her with a good
camera shot looking up on her while she
does this. There's also a good forceful
moment with Esther towards Max while she's crying and aggressively
telling her to stop crying which looks
quite disturbing.
A good scene with the two of them
in a tree fort with Esther telling Max that she will
be responsible for a death but then
trying to poison her mind about stuff and
telling her she loves her which gives the
picture a perfect horror and
psychological feel to it.
There's nice shots on Daniel snooping on them outside with nice shots
on Esther turning around to see
who's spying on her which looked spooky
wondering if he will get caught.
Great camera shot looking up on Esther pointing a blade towards Daniel's neck and getting nasty
towards him with threats which was nicely
done and totally looking like an evil
child towards an innocent one.
A good tense moment with both John and Dr. Browning talking to Kate about going back to rehab with her
convincing them that she wasn't drinking
along with great intense behavior and
aggressions on her behalf while doing so
which was very powerfully done.
Another good moment with Esther lighting the fort on fire with flames
surrounding Benett with good shots on him
trying to escape from it.
Great moment with Kate crying intensely in a hospital and then
racing up to Esther and
slapping her hard screaming at her which
looked greatly done.
There's a great shot on John swigging back some glasses of wine on a
couch acting like a basketcase. Plus a
good moment with Esther in make up
trying to come on strong towards him as
well as him getting aggressive with her.
There's many great struggling moments
between Kate and Esther during an ice pit and trying to climb to
the top which was probably the best
direction ever but don't want to spoil
it.
Bottom line is that it's been a while
since I've seen a great horror flick
these days since there's been nothing but
remakes and this one came along which had
a great plot to it keeping you in
suspense all the way through wondering
what's going to happen next and will this
evil brat get what's coming to her.
The story looks very impressive showing
some mean kids at school hoping they will
get what's coming to them by messing with
the wrong person and some dysfunctional
values on a family and thinking as well
there's a scene where a pigeon gets
killed which I found upsetting since I
love pigeons and it seems there's more
animal killing in horror flicks these
days and find it unneccessary.
It is almost a tribute to those retro
flicks while watching the plot as some
may think this is gonna be like The
Omen but this film is not
supernatural but has an evil child doing
nasty deeds with the family or others
around her. There's also some elements of Children of the Corn 3: Urban
Harvest on a girl showing a nice
attitude to the father but not the
mother. Plus there are many scene's that
borrow heavily from the psychological
thriller The Good Son with
a child acting innocent only to do evil
things and trying to get others to stick
with her while she does this stuff. I
mean all of this together brings out a
great horror film.
It is a bit scary when you expect
something terrible is going to happen and
it does as well as a good beginning with
little Esther acting so loving and
innocent and later showing her true evil
colors which sells for a horror film and
is a must for any horror fan without a
doubt.
Alot of great intensity surrounding the
Esther character and acting menacing in
which you hope this family will stay safe
and finding out more about where this
little girl came from and why she's doing
the things she does.
It also has alot of good psychological
moments when a struggling mother and wife
is recovering from alcoholism and no one
believes her when she try to warn them
about this child doing this stuff and is
accused of doing these things to herself.
Bottom line is the film was a flop at the
box office but yet is a terrific horror
film in my mind which is better than
watching a remake and can inspire others
like this one even if it's been done a
few times before.
The acting was very
powerfully performed with a talented cast
especially the lead actress Vera
Farmiga (Kate Coleman) with her upsetting emotions
and her disturbed behavior as well as
showing a nice and caring attitude too.
She also knew how to act incredibly
aggressive and intense almost losing her
mind when the terrible things start to
happen in the film in which she draws
this alltogether terrifically not losing
the pace in the plotlines. She was by far
the best adult cast member in the film
and deserved an award if she didn't get
it.
Peter Sargaard (John Coleman) had the good looks
and nice guy next door appeal to his part
with a good passive like behavior and
calm attitude too reminding you as one of
those easygoing types. He does show good
upsetting emotions too when he needed to
bring that out as well.
Isabelle
Fuhrman (Esther) lived to play the demented
supposed child Esther and studied this
part inside out showing a nice friendly
deceiving nice girl with a good calm
attitude and then acting cold with her
wicked speaking as well as really letting
it out with her violent attitude. She was
a ball of energy and can get more gigs
like this in which this film would be a
great stepping stone.
Aryana Engineer (Max Coleman) showed a great
innocent appeal as the partially deaf and
mute youngest one in the film who knew
how to act confused and emotional about
what's all happening around her. I really
sympathised for her part in the flick.
It's nice to see Jimmy Bennett (Daniel Coleman) in another horror film since his little
boy innocent appeal in the remake of Amityville
Horror but this time he's a
little older and going through a
rebellious phase proving he can wear
another hat to a character in this one.
He does well acting vulgar and aggressive
when he is bothered by something as well
as showing a nice stand offish attitude
too.
CCH Pounder (Sister Abigail) played a nice mother
superior with a good warm and calm
attitude to her part in which I thought I
should mention her even if she's only
halfway through this flick. She knew how
to portray this role very well and can be
well remembered for it.
We hear alot of the light
echoey peaceful piano playing for the
pleasant moments in the film. There's
also good dark sounds and banging noises
too for when the terrors start to happen
as well as some cold sounding noises with
the synthesizer. There's lots of
screeching sounds which works intensely
well. There's the odd deep violin music
too which sounds nice and strong. |