| A top-notch cast led by Renée Zellweger meets Hollywood's newest member of the Evil Little Girl army in the long-gestating supernatural thriller Case 39. Zellweger is a concerned social worker who takes in young Jodelle Ferland (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse) after she is nearly roasted alive by her foster family. She soon discovers that the girl possesses a wide array of unpleasant abilities, from the prerequisite foul mouth and bad attitude to devastating powers of suggestion, which bring untimely ends to most of the cast. Director Christian Alvart (Pandorum), working once again with his talented Antibodies cinematographer Hagen Bogdanski, delivers a suitably creepy-looking film but can do nothing with Ray Wright's inert, derivative script (Wright also penned the equally DOA remakes of Pulse, 2006, and The Crazies, 2010). What's left is a smattering of shocks and straight-faced turns by such capable vets as Zellweger, Ian McShane, Bradley Cooper, Cynthia Stevenson, and Callum Rennie. Horror fans will find more compelling kiddie chills in The Omen, The Exorcist, or even 2009's Orphan. --Paul Gaita |
