Hijos de Satán

the good intentions are basic virtue of this strange film. strange not for idea but for its use. and for the not inspired manner to be more than poor exercise to remember a classic. the cast is OK and this is far to be a virtue. because the presence of Heather Graham and James Purefoy as a sweet couple, Fionnula Flanagan in skin of an interesting character and, the sad piece - Andy Serkis as pearl before swine in a movie who is only mixture between different ingredients, with large slices of Rosemary Baby and a lot of clichés. it is difficult to comment a film who is only exercise for a director ambition. or, only, a not inspired homage to Polansky and horror universe.

There were so many parallels to Rosemary's Baby that I kept waiting for some huge twist to throw me off, and it just never happened. Not only was the movie extremely predictable, but the acting was pathetic, the writing was pathetic, the directing was decent at best, all in all, this was just pathetic. There was absolutely no character development at all. There is no way that during the filming of this movie Heather Graham said to herself "This is going to be a great movie!" She was so unconvincing that it was almost comical. I seriously cannot think of one redeeming quality. This is the type of movie that you wait for to come out on DVD, and then don't rent it.

What should have been a good story ends up poorly executed by the director. That was my feeling after watching what could have been a real scary thriller. I continued to watch because I wanted to see just how uninteresting most of the actors performances were and playing the 'spot the best actor' game. Well into the movie I thought I was watching 24 except that this one was going to take nine months to get to the point. If you have ever watched those good directors comments that accompany DVD's and listened where they discuss deleted scenes and pace and so on, well 'Blessed' is and example of what happens when none of that occurs. Scenes and characters that lead nowhere, leaving you to wonder just where the story is leading. You get a vague idea except that the movie digresses many times before eventually arriving to the final scene where thankfully the really scary stuff takes place. Then the movie ends too soon.

I tried really hard to give this movie the benefit of the doubt telling myself that any moment now it was going to get better but it just never did. I feel like someone sat down & made a list of a lot of things they wanted to put in a movie. (pretty girl, flash house, cute kids, ancient artifacts etc..) Did them all poorly on the cheep & threw them together with no thought about plot, point or purpose. Both the acting & script left me with no connection to the characters what so ever leaving me feeling like i couldn't care less what happened to them. The end result, a poorly made, budget feeling film lacking any substance at all.

Cool Rumanian thriller that mixes "Rosemary's Baby" with "The Omen." It's about time we had one of these good, psychological creepers! Real sad to hear about David Hemming's death during the filming; they had to use a body double and some facial CGs for the important party scene. Miss Stevens ("Betty") is spiritual and sassy as the real tor/godmother who shows the couple a house by the lake that they cannot resist. We don't see her as much these years as we did with "Girls, Girls, Girls!" and "The Poseidon Adventure," but Stella still works it on the silver screen. Heather Graham pulls her own as the so-so mother-to-be-to-be...

To say anymore would involve spoilers, so I pause for now! Recommended at the very, very least for your autographed DVDs library. This is a spooooooooky flick with some class and a bluish cast. I give it 4 out of 10.