
Horror flicks usually don’t scare me at all. As a matter of fact, my friend and I inevitably end up laughing in the cinema whenever we watch one, mostly because we find the plot to be ridiculous or even convoluted. The problem is that horror storylines are overused and tend to have shoddy sets along with cheap production values, not to mention that many of them are blasphemous as well.
But this movie was an exception…
The concept of using a child and exploiting her innocent and harmless looks to give you goose bumps and freak you out is certainly not a new idea. Previous horror movies had that before such as the Omen. However, this movie kicked off with a bizarre intro; a troubled child by the name of Lilith Sullivan (Jodelle Ferland) is thought to be abused by her parents while a social worker endeavors to find out what is going on. Based on her instincts, social worker Emily Jenkins (Renee Zelwegger) gives the little girl her phone number in case anything bad happens. One night, the little girl calls Emily and tells her that she heard her parents saying that they are going to kill her later tonight. Much to her complete and utter horror, the child wakes up afterwards terrified by her parents as they try to gag her and tie her up.
Now this is the crazy part:
The parents then try to shove her in the oven and bake her alive!
While watching th
at very scene, Retro jokingly says: “What is this? Are they parents gone totally insane? Perhaps they are trying to bake their child for Christmas?”Of course suspense kicks in afterwards when Emily and her friend the cop break into the house and save the girl right on time. In order not to have major spoilers in this movie review, I will not tell you what happens as you will later on understand the true nature of the child and why the parents had tried to kill her in the first place.
Let’s just say that once you reach the end of the movie, you would not only want to bake the child in the oven, but also chop her up into pieces or maybe skin her alive and then hang her from an overpass!
In any case, Emily decides to adopt the child, and what a mistake that was!
Bottom-line: If you truly want to be terrified and flinch every now and then, I suggest you watch this movie. However, please note that this movie is rated R and is definitely not to be watched by children under 18 years.
XTR's Rating: B+

