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Case 39 (2010)
Director: Christian Alvart
Movie review
From Time Out London
Filmed in 2006, German director Christian Alvart’s first Hollywood feature – a dumb, glossy ‘demon child’ movie with none of the subtlety of his debut, ‘Antikörper’ – has languished on the shelf ever since. One can see why. A miscast Renée Zellweger plays social worker Emily Jenkins who, after saving ten-year-old Lilith (Jodelle Ferland) from being roasted alive in her mad parents’ oven, offers her a home.At first, Emily thinks that Lilith is a classic damaged child, but then people start dying: one of Lilith’s classmates bludgeons his parents to death; Emily’s boyfriend is killed by a swarm of hornets. Sceptical sheriff Mike Barron (a somnambulant Ian McShane) insists that ‘a damaged, deceitful, manipulative child is not a demon’, but by now Emily’s do-gooder has pitched over into wild-eyed hysteria, raving about how Lilith is a malevolent catalyst who causes her victims to hallucinate their deepest, darkest fears. This is horror hokum of the cheesiest kind. Rent ‘Orphan’ instead.
Author: Nigel Floyd
Time Out London Issue 2063, 4-10 Mar 2010
Cast & crew
Director: Christian Alvart
Cast: Renée Zellweger, Jodelle Ferland, Ian McShane, Kerry O'Malley, Adrian Lester full cast
Genre(s): Thrillers
Duration: 109 mins
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