This film has more than a few thrilling moments. It caused my friend to throw her hands over her eyes and gasp, numerous times. I kept looking, but will admit to a few gasps too.
Academy Award winning René Zellweger, who plays Emily Jenkins, a caring and devoted social worker, is determined to prove that the weird, (make that really weird) and dysfunctional parents of a highly disturbed child, are guilty of sadistic child abuse.
But what did the child’s parents do? The haunted looking mother (played by Kerry O’Malley) and the disturbing looking father (played chillingly by Callum Keith Rennie) are giving nothing away, as they face the investigation.
Their child, Lillith, (played very ably by Jodelle Ferland) will not say she won’t utter a word, just stares with haunted eyes, until Jenkins separates them for a moment and speaks to the child, who finally whispers to Jenkins; her parents are planning to kill her.
But nothing can be done without some concrete proof. Lillith refuses to repeat her statement on tape, obviously terrified of her parents. So Jenkins decides to risk her career and a law suit, by breaking through the red tape, and into their house. What she sees only makes her feel more uneasy.
Then one evening, Jenkins gets a call from a terrified Lillith. Jenkins then begs her still unconvinced friend, Detective Mike Barron (Golden Globe winning Ian McShane), to help her break into the house to save Lillith from, what turns out to be, an unspeakably grisly and tortuous death, at the hands of her insanely determined parents. It is a scene few will forget, a moment of pure horror.
Then, just when you think all is well, things start to go very, very wrong.
Jenkins is left with trying to find out what is really going on, as her world begins to fall apart. Jenkins learns that fear is evil’s ultimate tool of terror and dominance; but to defeat it, you must first garner the gumption to master it, in yourself!
Zellweger, as Emily Jenkins, gives a strong and credible performance as the caring social worker.
This is the American feature film debut of German director Christian Alvart, (he directed the European thriller “Antibodies”). The action scenes are shot well (D.O.P. Hagen Bodanski) and edited to a fine degree (Mark Goldblatt A.C.E.). The Production Designer, John Willet, paid a lot of attention to background details, like grimy walls around light switches etc, which heightened the reality and the ‘creepy’ factor.
While not one of the most (continually) terrifying films I have experienced, there are plenty of moments to entertain and I can almost guarantee, a hell of a lot of people will find this film quite a scary ride.
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