Case 39

Year of release : 2009

Run time : 1h52m

Genre : Psychological Horror / Mystery

Cast : Renee Zellwegger, Bradley Cooper, Ian McShane

Emily is a social worker who is really kind and wants to help. She has 38 active cases and is given a new one she doesn’t actually want.

She goes out to see her friend, Doug, who actually wants to date her, but she doesn’t want to be more than friends.

Emily visits the Sullivans, or Case 39. When the mother opens the door, she was so out of it (later we find out they couldn’t sleep) she didn’t even know it was the day Emily was visiting.

Lilith seems shy, scared and innocent. Emily wants to talk to the father too, but he doesn’t really want to, so he has his wife talk to her, as he whispers to his wife what to say to Emily, as he doesn’t want to talk out of anger. The first impression the parents give is that they are evil, and abusing Lilith, but things aren’t always as they seem.

Lilith and her parents are called to the child services’ offices, and Lilith seems uncomfortable and scared, while Emily is asking the parents what’s happening at home, since her grades went down and she sleeps in class.

Emily talks to Lilith alone and she tells her her parents hate her, and that she heard them say they want to send her to hell .

Emily goes to detective Mike Barron, who tells her to bring him evidence of a crime.

When Emily goes to Lilith’s school, to talk to her, Lilith asks her if she’ll look for her if she disappears. So Emily gives her her phone number.

That very night, Lilith calls her about her parents drugging her, fearing that they might k1ll her.

Lilith’s parents check on her, take her, and put her in the oven, turning it on.

Emily and detective Mike arrive just in time to save her.

Lilith is taken to the hospital and her parents are prosecuted. Emily’s friend, Doug, is a psychiatrist, and talks to her, telling her it’s not her fault what had happened.

Hearing she’ll be sent to a children’s home, Lilith asks Emily to take her in. Although at first she refuses, Emily talks to the board, and fosters her. She needs to give up the case though.

When she goes to take some of Lilith’s things from her home, Emily sees her father dug a hole in the basement. She also notices her parents’ bedroom had marks on the floor, and the door many locks, meaning they were barricading themselves in the bedroom at night.

Lilith is in child group therapy, and Emily finds out Diego, one of the kids, k1lled his parents the night after the group session, after a call from her place . Emily knows she didn’t call their place, which leaves Lilith, but she says she didn’t do it, and even Diego says it was a man’s voice.

Lilith starts asking Emily uncomfortable questions about her parents, and she catches her stealing her pictures, meaning she went through her things.

Having to talk to Doug, who thinks she didn’t answer correctly to some questions about being afraid (of her parents, of the dark), she starts threatening him, and asks him what’s his biggest fear. Doug tells her, and later that night, that’s how he dies.

Emily starts suspecting Lilith, putting together the information she has on what she saw in her parents’ home, Diego’s change of character, and how Doug died. She watches the video of her mother’s testimony on why they wanted to k1ll her, and finds out Lilith k1lls everyone around her, her relatives and friends, by putting things in their head. And that she got rid of them after she found their replacement, Emily.

Lilith is also torturing her parents who are in the mental institution, her mother thinking she’s on fire. Lilith’s father tells Emily she’s not an innocent 10 year old girl, and that she won’t be able to get rid of her until Lilith has had enough of her kindness and decency, as that’s what she feeds on. He tells her Lilith never sleeps (the first night she slept was the one in which they tried to k1ll her), can see everything and senses the rest. And what she wants is to make people live in what’s their idea of hell.

Emily starts taking all the landline phones out of the house ,and all the knives. When Lilith starts threatening her, she puts locks on her bedroom door, and due to that, Lilith doesn’t let her sleep at night, screaming (her voice changing from that of a kid to a woman or a man’s), knocking on her bedroom door all night, or making her see things.

I personally enjoyed the movie. It’s the perfect definition of “no good thing goes unpunished”.

Emily is kind, all she wants to do is help, and gets involved in the cases she has, as the kids who are hurt remind her of the life she lived with her mother.

Lilith comes across as innocent and sweet in the beginning, and her personality unravels the moment she talks to Doug, who thinks she must be afraid of something, because everybody is afraid of something, and we realize she’s got a name to match her personality. Jodelle Ferland who played her was great, she went from looking innocent to downright evil within a few moments.

The movie apparently has a dark alternate ending, in which evil wins.

The acting was good.

The soundtrack was good.

The visual effects were good.

The movie grossed a little over 28 million dollars at the box office, against a budget of 26 million dollars.

You can watch the full movie for free on the Ok.Ru platform.

Rating : Worth a watch !