Tags:
Film: Case 39
Year: 2009
Director: Christian Alvart
Writer: Ray Wright
Starring: Renée Zellweger, Ian McShane and Jodelle Ferland
Review:
This film follows a social worker, who is played by Renée Zellweger. Her boss asks her how many cases she has and she tells him 38. He then drops off one more and this one is quite the case.
This one is surrounding Jodelle Ferland. She was an A student at 8 years old, but she has been falling asleep in class and her grades have dropped. Zellweger begins to investigate. When she goes to the home, her parents are strange and not open to answering her questions so she tries to step in and help.
No one believes anything bad is happening, until one night Ferland calls Zellweger and says her parents are trying to kill her. In reality, they are. They come into her room and take her downstairs. They put her in the oven and after some fighting, duct tape her in. Before they can finish, Zellweger and her cop friend, who is played by Ian McShane, save her.
The state takes her away and locks up the parents. Ferland is terrified to be in the system so with petitions, Zellweger takes over as her legal guardian for the time being. With the help of her friend, Bradley Cooper, they try to help Ferland. It is then that they realize there’s more to her than they realize and maybe it wasn’t her parents that were crazy after all.
This film wasn’t what I was expecting, but it had a very creepy and scary feel to it. I find horror movies were the child is the malevolent one to be especially scary and this one doesn’t disappoint there. Ferland shows quite a bit of range as a child to be the malicious person that she is. I’m used to seeing her play the victim, like in Silent Hill or Kingdom Hospital, but this was a different role.
With that said, the other cast does well in showing the terror that she causes as well. The story has a depressing feel that there is nothing that can be done to stop her and that makes the atmosphere of the film that much scarier.
I would recommend giving this one a viewing. Not the best horror movie, but definitely worth a view to just see the role that Ferland plays. I thought the film was more of an evil spirit following her, but to see that she is the evil spirit and the things she does to those around her is truly a creepy experience. Give this one a chance.
My Rating: 7 out of 10