You know that old saying: if you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all. Well, let’s just say you’ve seen Case 39 already.
The unfortunate thing about the horror genre is that once the big studio’s find a style that rakes in millions of dollars they will keep reproducing them over and over. The good old substituting quality for quantity maneuver. Case 39 is nothing more than a combination of The Ring and The Grudge. A film about a troubled child who plagues upon an innocent character by killing off their friends and family in horrifying ways. Case 39 is filled with the same cheap thrills that have become the norm in horror films over the last decade. Creepy old homes, morphing furniture, quick shocks and predictable pop ups.
The film is about Emily (Renee Zellweger) a loving social worker who cares deeply about the children she protects, to point where she sacrifices her own personal life for her job. Emily soon comes across an interesting case of a girl named Lilith, who has isolated herself in school and is reportedly neglected at home. Once Emily visits the family she fears for the child’s safety and goes out of her way to rescue the child from a family who believes she is an evil demon.
Once Lilith begins living with Emily, we soon discover the horror that she harbors. That her parents did have the right to worry and be terrified of their daughter.
Where the movie fails is in its predictability. From the moment things become unusual for Emily we can already see where the film is headed. It is too easy to predict how characters will die and how Emily will have to stop her. Zellweger’s performance, as well as Bradley Cooper’s and Ian McShane’s, are dry and unimaginative. They seemed more like actors filling in the same jello mold from actors who filmed similar movies in the past. A lot of great talent went to waste in Case 39.
But one performance stood out from the pack, and that was the performance of the demonic Lilith, played by Jodelle Ferland. Once her character picked up steam mid-way through the movie, her sweet innocent appearance combined with her evil soul melted into one uncomfortable character to watch. It seems that Hollywood has found a way to make children (particularly young girls) incredibly terrifying in horror films. Last year’s film, The Orphan, certainly set the bar high on just what a young child can do when embodying a certain evil.
Despite Ferland’s performance, Case 39 fails just as badly as other films of its kind have in the past. Horror fans will certainly throw this film at the bottom of the sale bin at Wal-Mart and those who are looking for a little a scare with out the real terror of a great horror film will probably find this movie satisfying. My recommendation is that you save your money for films like Let Me In and My Soul To Take, which should provide much more exciting stories and truly terrifying experiences.
