The New Daughter

Not really sure why this falls in the horror category, thriller yes, but wasn't really anything scary as much as unsettling and I think that is were this movie hit the nail on the head.

As someone else mentioned this movie does give off the hint of signs, but with a twist, something that hits a little closer to home, and doesn't seem as far fetched as aliens.

As someone else mentioned that this movie is absolutely terrible, and i can't help but disagree, the movie kept me wondering the entire length and even once it was over. My eyes stayed glued, i never felt like i was bored or wondering when it would get to the "good stuff" It did seems to start off slow, and then ran really fast in the last 20 minutes, but i don't feel that was such a bad thing, as with thrillers its all in the build up anyways.

I don't ever consider thrillers to be a DVD purchase, as once you've seen it it has no replay value, but its definitely worth a hit on the netflix que.

A decent little "family in new home" horror film. I like the whole mound idea with creepy creatures living under it. But, this film actually does a good job of achieving the "less is more" approach, focusing on the inner family conflict and the confrontational young daughter coming into her teens, and using that as the main suspense element. I'm always a fan of Costner so it was good seeing him in a horror, plus the kids did well with their parts too.

The New Daughter is an odd one, a creepy Kevin Costner vehicle that almost seems like an M. Night Shyamalan idea that didn't quite take flight from the drawing board. Nevertheless it's a good enough time at the movies, and there's genuinely skin crawling moments too. Costner, in solemn mode, plays a father who relocates to South Carolina with his kids. As if an obligatory adjustment period isn't bad enough, soon his teenage daughter (Pan's Labyrinth's Ivana Baquero, skillful but an odd choice to play all American white boy Kevin's daughter) starts acting strange, and I mean Stranger than your usual garden variety brand of pubescent restlessness. There's something out there in those rural woods, something that's drawing the girl's attention and slowly start possessing her. Father Costner is creeped out and desperate, seeking help from anyone he can, including a professor of far flung urban legend mythology (Noah Taylor), the creepy previous owner of his new home (screen legend James Gammon in his last living film role) and his kid's foxy local schoolteacher (Samantha Mathis). It's a spooky enough little flick, albeit cobbled together from several other better movies. There's creature effects later on that score some points, and atmospheric cinematography, but ultimately it's average, middle ground material.

Up to a certain point in The New Daughter, I was reminded of Dragonfly. Both are low budget Costner films about a man dealing with a family loss which has a haunting outcome. It has been a while since I saw Dragonfly. Nobody thought it was any good, but it is way better than this film. To start with the obvious, The New Daughter represents what may be Costner's most lazy performance. It seems he has no interest in the story whatsoever. After a while the Dragonfly connection starts to fade away, and the movie turns into something else, something worse unfortunately. The New Daughter is torpid, and is bogged down by too much content, and not enough suspense or intelligent dialogue.

If I am gonna give the film any credit, it would be for photography. This is a gorgeously shot film, where the nights are cold, eerie and evocative, and the safety of home is warm, glowing and golden. The best shot in the film is the last one, which barely makes up for the utter stupidity of the ending. There is much left to explain, but in the end, I don't really care.

The New Daughter, is a spooky story, which is occasionally interesting but is less so than it is sloppily executed, badly acted, and not worth your money.

A recently divorced father (Kevin Costner) moves his teenage daughter Louisa (Ivana Baquero) and son Sam (Gattlin Griffith) to the rural town of Mercy, South Carolina for a fresh start. In the dark forest beyond their new house, strange noises can be heard, and soon the father comes to believe that there's something wrong with his daughter. Is it connected to the strange mound of earth amongst the trees?

"The New Daughter" is not a bad movie at all, but it's not especially great either and that's what I found so frustrating about it. It comes so very close to being brilliant but somehow fails when it should have succeeded. Perhaps part of the reason it fails is that it needed a stronger leading man at its centre. The entire movie rests upon Kevin Costner's shoulders and he seems to virtually sleepwalk through it. The only time you see a glimmer of emotion is when he pounds his fists gently against a wall in one scene to show his anger. The actors playing the children are fine, even if they don't exhibit a lot of emotive moments and simply go from A to B as required.

The director does a superb job providing a growing sense of dread at the situation, and there are a number of scenes where he employs the 'less is more' approach, leaving it up to the imagination of the audience as to what a dark shape amongst the trees might have been, or what might be making a strange noise behind a closed door. The movie has a slow, moody pace similar to movies such as "Signs" and "The Others" which also helps to enhance the atmosphere. The special effects in the later part of the movie are also very well done.

In conclusion, I would have to say that "The New Daughter" is 'okay'. It's certainly worth a rental if you like slower paced psychological horrors rather than the type of movie where everyone runs around attempting to avoid crazed killers. There's hardly any blood, and it does contain one or two good scares, although the plot is a bit predictable in places. I only wish that it was more than 'okay', because all of the elements were in place to make a far better movie and that's what ultimately frustrates me.