So, you're probably all familiar with the story of an evil child, seemingly innocent, until they show their true color and everyone dies. It's story that works everytime, and unless you're looking for something amazingly original, it's a nice simple scary story for a night on the couch (or, an afternoon behind your computer).
That said, I wasn't expecting much of Case 39.
The story is about a social worker, Emily Jenkins (Renee Zellweger) who is having a hard time working on all the 38 cases she's assigned to do. But, the movie wouldn't be called case 39, if there wasn't one, right? Right!
This social worker is so kind-hearted, she takes on another case (39!), a girl who'se parents are trying to kill her. So ofcourse, Emily takes little Lilith (cute name) in to care for her, until the system finds her another home. Emily's not-yet-but-certainly-almost boyfriend Doug (Bradley Cooper) is a psychologist who gives the children therapy to overcome their trauma's and open up. What they don't know, is that our little Lilith, is a demon, who can kill you just by calling you up. Later on this changes to whispering in someone's ear (what happened to that other little girl?) , and later-later on this changes to 'she just does whatever the f*ck she wants'. It all ends with the conclusion that she can't really hurt you (or, well, she can, but...what?) if you're not afraid of her. So Emily plunges the car with her and Lilith in the water, Emily comes out alive and all's well.
Ofcourse, the movie is filled with scary moments, people dying, Emily finding out what the hell is going on (which always comes after the part in which a lot of people died already) and the battle against evil.
A lot of people thought Renee didn't do very well in this movie, said she isn't suited for a thriller/horror, but I actually thought she did a pretty decent job. Having Bridget Jones in the back of my mind, a kind-hearted social worker is a perfect part for her, in my humble opinion.
The scary parts weren't actually really scary, making it more like a thriller, but that's fine with me. I don't think a lot of gore would improve this movie a lot. Jodelle Ferland did a good job on being creepy, eventhough in my opinion she killed Detective Mike a bit too soon, making that scene seem a bit random. If she kept him alive, maybe they could have put a little more action in it. What Lilith does is find out what you're most scared of, and uses that to kill you. That's pretty clever, but they could have deepened that a little more.
So, it isn't the best movie ever, not even remotely, but it isn't bad either. Nice movie, if you don't expect too much. If you're ever out of movie ideas for the evening, give Case 39 a try.
Love,
Renate
