The New Daughter (2009) Movie Review, Trailer and Poster

USA 2009
Director: Luis Berdejo
Cast: Kevin Costner, Ivana Baquero, Samantha Mathis, Gattlin Griffith, Erik Palladino
Rating: PG-13
Release Date: 18 December 2009
Running Time: 1 hour 48 minutes

The Movie Review

It was Saturday night and initially I had nothing else to do and thinking I was just gonna review one of the titles from my DVD collection. But then my wife asked me to go and enjoy of the most "happening" parade in Jakarta. It was the food and fashion festival located in one of the biggest malls in North Jakarta. It was something like the shorter version of a parade in Brazil, I guess. But when it's all over we were all exhausted and craved for resting our sore feet inside the comfy studio of the cinema.

We were hoping to see Source Code (2011) but the latest show of it had begun before we even finished our dinner. "So, what now?" she asked me, and I just told them to see The New Daughter in the midnite show starting from 11.00 PM, hoping that since usually so-so horror films would be better if seen in the


The NEW DAUGHTER
Storyline:
Cast:
Ending:
Overall:

silence of night. The New Daughter is a mixed bag of tension and run-of-the-mill type of culprit.

A family of a father, John James (Kevin Costner), and his 7-year old boy, Sam James (Gattlin Griffith), and a teenage daughter, Louisa James (Ivana Baquero), is moving to a very large and secluded house in South Carolina. Their mom had left them for another man. Louisa is having a very hard time accepting all this in such a sudden. As a teenager who misses the bustling sounds of a big city, Louisa finds the house very weird and extremely quiet. The house apparently sits miles and miles away from any human being. Why would they want to live there? That's one of the mysteries of horror movies :-)

Having no friends and even a blonde bully at her new school, Louisa finds new comfort in the forest surrounding the house, particularly in a large mound (that looks tiny hill) near the house. But Sam doesn't like the mound and both Sam and John notice that Louisa's behaviour and personality is gradually getting stranger and more sinister every time she finishes resting or playing near the mound. And apparently there's some bad rumours about the house that John hears from the locals. What is happening in that secluded place? And what is really happening to Louisa James?

This horror film opens with a good scene that oozes the ambience and scent of loneliness and something eerie-like. The location of the house as well as the access road and the forest will make you think "Why would anyone want to live there if they're not FBI's most wanted or a psycho?" The house is much much creepier than the one if The Amityville Horror (remake 2005). For about the first half of the movie, the air of mystery is thick and intriguing. But unfortunately afterwards, once you have a good guess what causes all the trouble, the story starts to become something cliché. For seasoned horror fans or any big movie buff, that part would be something blah, but for general movie fan, I still think it's a good story and tense-inducing for them. Although the ending could've been much better...

-- Start of Obvious Spoiler Alert --

Louisa's weird attitude is caused by the ancient Indian burial mound which apparently houses ancient creatures that uses Louisa for their purpose. Strangely, this weird creature can be clearly (and deliberately uncut) in the beginning of the movie. This scene should've been cut! Anyhow, once the movie is all about John James (Kevin Costner) versus The Creatures, the movie starts to feel like Predator (1987).

-- End of Obvious Spoiler Alert --

You see, The New Daughter relies heavily on boo-scares. You know, the kind of shocking surprises of sudden big deafening sound, or sudden creepy sight or anything that'll make you jump off you seat. Actually the premise of this horror flick is a welcomed addition to the horror realm, it's a nice variation to all the slasher flicks or Asian remakes. However, it's not that articulated very well and not that smart. I'm not saying it's a bad one, on the contrary The New Daughter might appeal to those of you who seek for scary brainy movie.

I saw the movie eventually also with my wife's younger brother and his future wife (hopefully). And as usual the guys were satisfied to have their partners cuddly but the girls were kinda disappointed since they constantly covering their eyes with their hands and saying that it'd shocked them and made them restless throughout the film! Hahaha, that's why some of us males chose that movie on date night, right? ;-D

© iwan pranowo of Movielogy.com
posted: Monday, 15 May 2011 11:48 pm