Movies like the 1976 “The Omen” and “Orphan” from 2009 make it hard for “Case 39” to break out of the shell of “innocent child gone evil.” With poor acting and predictable twists, this movie barely puts up a fight to be notable, becoming lost in the paperwork.
“Case 39” follows the story of Emily Jenkins (Renée Zellweger), a social worker who takes on the case of Lillith Sullivan (Jodelle Ferland). Lillith is a young child with abusive parents and is soon taken away and put into the care of Emily. As the days pass with this child in her home, Emily feels something is a little off with this girl.
As the story progresses, we see Lillith’s true intentions and personality take shape. Emily is tormented throughout the movie by various close encounters with death and emotional torture. Emily seeks help from her friends Doug (Bradley Cooper) and Detective Barron (Ian McShane), but all attempts seem useless against Lillith’s strange presence.
Some credit must be given to Ferland’s performance, coming from movies like “The Messengers” and “Silent Hill,” she already has the “creepy girl” factor down. Though, in this, she was able to stand out due to more effective dialogue and range than any of the other actors in the movie. The audience is able to see her transform into this creature one second and jump back into the guise of an innocent little girl the next. One scene between Lillith and Doug is played out so well the audience can feel the uncomfortable tension grow as Lillith shows her true colors, causing Doug to be put in a very tight situation.
One good performance was not enough to keep this movie up to par, though. Zellweger was unconvincing and annoying at times. Her character had little to no dimension, causing her performance to fall through and come off as a joke. One moment she is swearing up a storm and finally showing some guts, the next she is cowering under a bed and crying her eyes out.
The storyline was anything but original and the CGI was laughable at times. Some scenes even dragged on for what seemed like hours. Though some scenes were pretty brutal and even shocking at one point, some happened so fast it was almost unclear as to what exactly happened. One scene in particular left the audience wondering if a person had really died or not, which, if anything, should be the clearest aspect of a horror movie. As for the CGI, the hornets taunting Cooper’s character looked more like giant flies. These hornets then gathered on his back and took on the shape of a giant black blob rather than a nest of hornets.
This movie’s trailers were completely different from the concept of the movie, which causes a bit of confusion as the film starts to roll. The concept from the trailers involves a young girl haunted by demons that follow her wherever she goes, but the theme for the movie is really the girl herself is not what she seems. Granted, there will be some scenes from the trailers which will not be in the film, but at least 50-60 percent of the footage was not in the movie. If the advertisements had been publicized more, this would have been a much bigger problem.
A horror movie at this level of mediocrity does not need to be nearly two hours long either. It may have something to do with the inclusion of what feels like an alternate ending, or maybe it is because the audience could see the twists coming from a mile away.
Either way, “Case 39” should have been left in the filing cabinet.
“Case 39” receives a 4 out of 10.
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