What I Liked: Lots of tension throughout. You know there’s something sinister going on with this little thirteen year old girl Rynn (Jodie Foster (Maverick)) but we’re kept in the dark for a long time. She’s supposed to be living in this Maine country house with her father but he’s never around, she doesn’t go to school and acts very conspicuously with an excuse for everything. And what the hell is in that cellar anyway?
Really nice acting work all around here but Foster’s
performance is the highlight. It’s also probably
pretty realistic for a kid like this.
She has this deadpan stare that denotes superiority and disgust for
those around her. When she finally gets
a friend in seventeen year old Mario (Scott Jacoby (Return to Horror High))
she starts to open up and let him into her world so she can warm up to the
right person. Foster has to deal with a
lot of different emotions but also keep them suppressed most of the time which
is a difficult task for any actor let alone such a young one.
The other quick mention acting wise I want to bring up is
Martin Sheen (Firestarter) who plays a totally creepy ass
pedophile. He pivots back and forth
between being disturbingly calm while making disgusting insinuations and abuzz
with uncontainable energy like he can’t wait to pounce on his victim. Very effective execution.
What I Didn’t Like: Foster’s hair with the long bangs looks absolutely terrible. At first I couldn’t believe someone would give her a haircut like that but then I read it was actually a wig. It’s distracting.
We could’ve been shown Rynn committing one more evil
act. There’s talk and suggestion but it
just feels like the movie’s missing one tiny extra jab to push it over.
Overall Impressions: I would classify this as more of
a thriller than a horror picture. It’s a
character study of this girl who’s too smart for her own good and only wants to
be left alone. The world won’t have it
though so she does what she feels is necessary in order to survive.
Anyway I do recommend checking this picture out. It ain’t blood and guts like The Brood or nothin’ so expectations will need to be calibrated. A more sophisticated route is taken by leaving a decent amount to the imagination.
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