BA_Harrison
What the hell happened to Chuck Russell? He made the most entertaining of the Elm Street sequels, did a cracking job on the '88 remake of The Blob, and gave us the excellent The Mask (which in turn gave us Cameron Diaz)—films that were pure unadulterated fun. But after churning out silly but entertaining Arnie actioner Eraser, his promising career seems to have slowly disappeared down the pan, a situation helped in no small part by this dire, end-of-the-millennium biblical horror. With Bless the Child, it seemed as though Chuck had forgotten everything important he had ever learnt about film-making.Unlike his previous movies, Russell fails to inject any originality or charm into proceedings, and the result is a lifeless and heavy-handed horror with woeful CGI, a movie designed for undemanding mainstream audiences; in short, it is the epitome of bland 90s popcorn horror. The plot is a weak rip-off of The Omen and the central performances are terrible: Rufus Sewell hams it up as an occult leader who tries to turn a supernatural little girl into a tool for Satan; Kim Basinger is unconvincing as the child's concerned guardian; and Angela Bettis proves thoroughly annoying as the girl's junkie mother. Christina Ricci, who is also fairly high up the cast list, is wasted in a completely pointless minor role.3.5 out of 10, generously rounded up to four for Ricci losing her head and some dude getting knitting needles in his eyes.
Samiam3
Bless the Child lives and dies on all the absurdities of its genre. Good Christians will be offended, intelligent people will be annoyed, and horror lovers will be bored. The movie's effectiveness goes only as far as it's having a bit more adrenaline than some of its equally unholy brothers and sisters like the Seventh Sign, the Ninth Gate, and/or Lost Souls. The only people that I can recommend Bless the Child to are satanists with a sense of humour.Kim Basinger could not act even if her life depended on it, something that the casting director of Bless the Child has not taken into account. Her line delivery here is atrocious, as is the case with pretty much every member of the cast save Jimmy Smits. Indeed Bless the Child is a typical case of people serving the function of chess pawns. They are pure wood, and have but to be moved from here to there by a film maker who doesn't really know how to play.There are times when it comes close to being laughable. Take for instance a handful of demons in human form, who kill their chosen victim by beating him/her like LAPD's finest. I don't see why morphing back into monster and biting someones head of isn't a more effective method. What little computer graphics there are look way out of date, but they make for some interesting shots. The utterly dopey climax gives us one rendering of Satan (as a beast not a man) unfortunately this version has got nothing on that featured in End of Days made the previous year. Such a movie as this one, with its blatant silliness, lack of scares, and unoriginality is hard to recommend.
Cinema_Fan
The devil resides in New York City and from the moment this film begins, we see exactly where this film is going. As the opening credits roll, its wonderful atmospheric start with its close-up night time shots of New York's gargoyles brings back memories of the great vampire movie Queen of the Damned (2002) and its visual introduction to its narrative.With the arrival of The Star of Yacov, better known as The Christmas Star, once more in some two thousand years, we see childless Maggie O'Connor (Kim Basinger) taking on her younger sisters new born baby Cody, as Cody is dumped on her door step, this elder sister, this wise mature woman and now surrogate mother takes on full responsibility. Myth has it too that Saint Margaret the Virgin is known to be the Patron Saint of Pregnancy, and who, as legend would have it, was brought up by a nurse after her father disowned her, and having once met with the devil, with him in the form of a dragon. Irony and coincidence perhaps for both, considering her name being Maggie and her inability to have children and baby Cody's circumstance.Dealing with this child and her seemingly autistic state, autism being a condition that is caused by a disorder that prevents the brain developing properly, this in turn can impair interaction both socially and emotionally. It isn't until she reaches six years of age that Maggie's worries slowly turn into fears of what exactly is wrong with this exceptional child. There are more than just physical and mental states at play here that are more than concerning and enlightening. Maggie's doubts and fears are soon to be tested, to and far beyond the boundaries of human restraint.Bless the Child uses fables and myth to bring old legends to contemporary settings. With the killing of the innocent children to flush out the Prophecy, the way in which we see this being done is very subtle and coaxing, if a little disturbing, bringing an uncomfortable reality that something sinister, something malevolent, something lurking in the shadows and something extremely evil is all to ready to pounce. Here lies the winning formula, the evil that we see is not so much dark forces of the underworld, but be warned, they exist here too, it is more the evil of man and his willingness to be lead and be controlled by them. Man against man, sin against morality and the age-old battle of Light against the Darkness. We see Eric Stark and his followers taking parallel lines in the similar vain as the real life Satan and occult master Aleister "The Beast" Crowley (1875 - 1947), founder of The Golden Dawn, and once labelled "The Wickedest Man in the World". With Eric Stark renaming his cult The New Dawn Foundation, it is he who most certainly carries this trade of old evils and new Beasts to a tee. English born Rufus Sewell plays Stark with convincing zeal, with both phoney exterior compassion and charm to literally devil-may-care cold indifference, intermingling both persona's well enough to know that we are dealing with more than just the basic human traits that we see, hear and deal with in life. Evil, as it seems holds no bounds.Kim Basinger and Holliston Coleman (born 1992) bond very well, and a great performance as surrogate mother, she plays her role with devotion and with an honest and convincing feel. With just three years after winning her Best Actress in a Supporting Role for L.A. Confidential, this isn't Ms. Basinger going down a peg but raising the stakes in this thriller horror movie genre. Her integrity is most certainly kept in tact, and this is with the assistance of one Chuck Russell, director of A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), The Blob (1988), The Mask (1994) and The Scorpion King (2002). A fine team they make, and as with the gelling of the two leading ladies, it is his fine work in crafting young Holliston Coleman to a standard of high-end child acting. Expect to see more of this young girl. Especially, if she were to take the good advice from the ever professional and independently versatile actress Christina Ricci as the heroin addict Cheri Post, which is always a pleasure to see her working.Bless the child also has its own parallels too, and lends itself to the likes of The Omen (1976), The Exorcist (1973) and the 1968 Roman Polanski film Rosemary's Baby, where we see children as axis of evils', Bless the Child sees the innocence and purity that is The Child; untainted and undemanding. Thus bearing the special gift of Life and the blessing of Divinity, sometimes disturbing, but slight, and at times touching, but never over demanding and horrific, which sets this movie of as being different and a little unique.With moderate violence and with the help of a little CGI, a script that fights its own ground when in the amphitheatres of right and wrong, excellent and well cast, we can then be assured that Bless the Child most certainly has not been cursed.
