New Daughter (2009)

Blu-ray/Netflicks

A-Mazing sleeper!! Whoda Thunk!?!

              Man-O-man!! I'm not even going to try to hide my love of this movie! It was awesome! Maybe it was because I was in a really bad place in my life. I mean, there hadn't been any GOOD scary movies in a long time. Scary movies are an important component to a long and healthy live, I'm pretty sure Confucius or Socrates said that!?! Anyway, rather I'm right or not about who's quote that was is beside the point. Time for the technicalities. This movie stars Frikkin Kevin "Leave WaterWorld Outta the Equation" Coastner as John James, Ivana Baquero as Louisa and Gattlin Griffith as Sam. This movie had a very limited theatrical release on December 19th, 2009. Blu-ray/DVD/Redbox/Netflicks followed on and soon after May 18th, 2010.

              Okay, with all the formalities out of the way let's get right to it. From the beginning of this film I was pulled into the story.  Filmed in South Carolina, the setting was on point and well picked. Each of the characters is given enough screen time to give you a solid idea of who they and what their focus is. John James is a recently divorced novelist who is trying to start up a new life with his two children. Shortly after moving into the country side home he bought strange occurrences start to happen. 

                Now, on the topic and the "strange occurrences. As previously stated in other posts. I have a very touchy pet peeve about people not "reacting" to ridiculous situations appropriately. I mean come on! It's not hard to know that, "Man this is not natural, it's almost SUPER-natural" etc,etc. I however did not feel like the main protagonist under-reacted to the start of what would spiral into, "I'm out"!! Just saying.

              So for the baddies/villains of this film. I was really impressed by not only the concept but the design and history of the character(s). Brilliant. They are creepy, somewhat scary but not so over-powering that a grown man with a good gun wouldn't say, "I can most certainly whoop these assholes!" Even I, one prone to not ask questions and leave, would have initially thought, "I got this." Point being though, I could see why he didn't just tuck tail and dip. Which for me is extremely important to establish in a horror/scary movie. 

              Overall I give this movie 4 stars. That's a really high rating for a movie that never even appeared in any of my local movie theaters. Regardless though, It did its job. It established a good story, with solid characters and for extra toppings, a awesome villain. Thumbs up Anchor Bay Ent. This is available to watch on Netflicks, so if you got it, use it, watch it. Nuff said.