Emily visits the home and discovers that the girl's parents are showing signs of abuse. Emily decides to take Lilith in until a good foster home can be found -- but unfortunately, everyone around Emily quickly begins dying, starting with her psychologist friend, Doug Bradley Cooper. Emily starts to believe that maybe Lilith is the problem, rather than her parents.
Can she get anyone to believe her before it's too late? The "demon child" subgenre of horror movies is an old one, stretching from The Bad Seed to The Omen to the more recent Orphan , and Case 39 doesn't have anything fresh to add. Completed in , CASE 39 sat around for a long time before being unceremoniously dump in theaters in ; in the meantime, director Christian Alvart went on to make the effectively moody Pandorum , but this movie is a dud.
In these movies, the horror springs from the concept that the purest and most innocent of all creatures -- a child -- can harbor murderous evil. But Case 39 doesn't seem to understand this; there's no real emotional draw to the characters, and they don't seem connected to one another.
Alvart counts on jump shocks and sudden noises for his scary scenes, and none of it works very well. The movie never digs deeper into its premise. Families can talk about the movie's violence. How did it affect you? Why do you think it affected you that way? As a horror movie, is Case 39 scary? Which scenes worked the best? In general, what's scarier -- blood and gore, or long, slow build-ups?
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Corona Column 3 Use these free activities to help kids explore our planet, learn about global challenges, think of solutions, and take action. Case This is when the story flips. When Emily expresses her concern to her boss and co-workers, they think she is insane. Lilith looks for nice people and tortures them. Of course, Lilith knows Emily wants to destroy her, so she scares her pants off, literally.
Emily ends up running down the street in the middle of the night with no pants. Apparently, a ghost only she could see was chasing her. She runs to her car to escape but finds Lilith in the back seat waiting. Lilith tells Emily she must do whatever she says. I will say that although the ending is not surprising, it is satisfying. There are some downsides to the movie. How many people are out there that are one visit from a social worker away from taping their child into the oven?
The very existence of Case 39 bothers me. The little girl in this movie is named Lilith. Lilith, as some know, was Adam's mythical first wife in the Garden of Eden, who refused to become his slave and was later turned into a demon.
In Case 39, Lilith's parents talk about how after she was born their brothers and sisters began dying untimely deaths.
Naturally, they assumed this was all Lilith's fault, especially after she manifested herself as a monster to them. This all begs the question: who would name their child Lilith? They were practically begging for her to become a demon. If they had a son, would they have named him Satan? The plot to the movie is much better if you choose to interpret it a certain way.
You have to assume that insanity is contagious, and that Zellweger's character falls victim to the same delusions Lilith's parents held. Storyline Edit. Some cases should never be opened. Rated R for violence and terror including disturbing images. Did you know Edit. Trivia This movie was completed in , and was initially scheduled for an American release in August , but was delayed twice before its final release date on October 1, , three years after completing production.
Goofs During the rainstorm scene where Emily flees her home to escape Lilith, she runs toward a bus. Emily, who is supposed to be wearing shorts is clearly in a pair of long legged pants in one shot. Quotes Douglas J. User reviews Review. Top review. With pizza and beer - quite tasty. It's a decent movie. I liked very much some cinematographic concepts cleverly used here to build solid tension, and mystery effect. We are used to very straight way of telling very straight stories, but sometimes it's good to move the camera off the basics a little even if the story isn't very original , just to tell something more by the picture, than only what the picture depicts.
Mr Bogdanski DP and Mr Alvart DIR have used some of those "tricks" carefully and wisely, gaining few disturbing shots which actually describe the feel of the whole movie. The story is simple, predictable, and has the "yep, I've seen this before" factor, but THOSE few yes, only few weird shots puts this movie slightly above the average. And there are Callum Keith Rennie, Kerry O'Malley and Ian McShane who work in the same business here with DP and Director - giving very intense and disturbing appearances in supporting, yet the movie tone establishing roles especially Rennie not being too demonic.
I'm glad that screenplay had provided them few very good sequences to play in. But let's be frank - that's not enough to break the limits. We have to remember some major flaws: First - the movie is very predictable. Second - Jodelle Ferland plays in a simple, cheap way, using far away easier acting methods, than her character needs.
Third - a promise of originality made by DP and Director in the first part of the movie, is never kept because of the second half, where everything is put in WYSIWYG manner, known from shitty Hollywood. FAQ What is "Case 39" about?
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