Case 39

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.