...was when the demonic child called Bradley Cooper's character facile and smug.

After taking on a new case, a social worker manages to save the young girl she's in charge of and takes her on as an adoptive child, but when a series of strange accidents befall her friends she suspects something is wrong with the little girl and tries to keep them safe.This one wasn't all that bad of an effort when it really tried. One of the more enjoyable elements within this one is the fact that there's a great build-up to whatever kind of person the girl is, and lets off its suspenseful tone rather nicely here. This one does a rather nice job with the way the evident danger about her is revealed, from the initial struggles about the family trying to cruelly torture her and the action-packed rescue attempt to get her out of the situation gives this a stylish start. This is admirably paid off with the second half here that builds to some rather fine moments here involving the manipulations of other people around her at the clinic which features plenty of gruesome moments with the crime-scene recreation at the beginning to the absolutely fun background check that occurs here to get the full story revealed that gives these scenes a shocking amount of weight behind them. This gets heavily improved during the fine retribution sequences where she goes out and convinces the others around her to start committing grisly acts of violence in strong accidents, from the encounter with the flies in the bathroom to the antics against her parents which have a strong vibe against them through the hallucinations she forces upon them, and the final big attack at the police station gives this a rather fun and enjoyable finish that sets up the tense finale which is what ends this on a high note. As well as the nice gore attacks and some decent enough make- up work on the demon entity at the heart of this all, it has a lot to like which manages to hold this up enough over the few minor flaws. The major issue with this one is the fact that there's very little new ground here in terms of where the story comes from. It feels really cliché and doesn't really do much different than dozens of other efforts in this style which really sets this one up to really be quite apparent from the get-go. That does end up lowering the surprise factor in so many of the scenes later on when she starts in on her evil antics as it manages to go where you expect it to and features so many expected moments because of the familiar setup. Likewise, there's little reason to understand why she keeps getting away with everything as she always seems to be in the center of everything and the lack of action to take her out makes no sense. Other than these issues, it's not all that bad of an effort.Rated R: Violence, Language and intense themes of children-in- jeopardy.

Well another movie that started out so promisingly then went rapidly down hill to a very un climatic ending.This started off WELL. I was really excited about watching the story unfold.Seemingly evil, sick deranged parents and poor child you could actually feel really bad for... Of course the twist comes very early. The sweet girl turns out to be... yes, evil. Oh yeah, and she has a crazy mother, no real history, was a sort of possessed half demon from birth.. actually scared and tormented the hell out of her parents and made them suffer till they went mad and tried to kill her then died.. (Orphan, The Ring, anyone?) Yes another story that's been done. And yes, again The lead "mother" role is scared and needs help from her male friend- who of course dies and leaves her desperate when the girl turns on her.This is a girl who knows what you are thinking and up to all the time.. ? This seems a fundamental flaw all the way through..how did this kid who knows and suspects all and doesn't sleep.. allow herself to be drugged and almost died in an oven, and then be locked inside an exploding house.. YET suddenly not only get out appear totally fine over the road? and then be killed by being being driven off a cliff- while scared because she can't sense what is happening or read your mind if you pretend you don't fear her.The whole ending was just so slap dash it actually annoyed me. There are so many ways it could have been as dramatic as the build up towards it. But no, rushed and really average. Oh let's go for a nice car ride after I have told you you are a psycho kid and I hate you.. look I'm going to kill you- oh there's the cliff.. right.Then.

I enjoyed that thriller. I think, both directing and acting was solid and good quality. The script was up to a standard too, only downfall was that the twist was kind of predictable from some points onward. In spite of this, it managed to keep up suspense until the end.I very much liked Renee Zellweger in that movie. I think she gave a real good performance as a social worker and so did the other main character, little girl in her care. The development of the relationship between the two is the backbone that carries the film, and they both do a brilliant job at it. The scenes between the do are all very strong, full of psychological suspense.That is the other thing why I liked this movie: it uses the minimal amount of gore and CSI and maximal amount of psychological suspense. The visual revealing of the horror at the end is also done tastefully, and most importantly, not overdone.