Bless the Child Year: 2000 Director: Chuck Russell Written by: Tom Rickman, Clifford Green, Ellen Green Threat: Satanist Weapon of Choice: Crochet Needles Based upon: novel by Cathy Cash Spellman IMDb page:

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Rish's Reviews
I'm not a huge fan of Religious Horror, the subcategory this film falls into, and Bless the Child came out in a period when we saw a lot of its type released (including Stigmata, End of Days, and Lost Souls), so I didn't feel entirely obligated to go see it. Still, I remember that when it arrived at the local cheap theatere, I at least considered going to it. After all, I was fond of the director (who helmed The Mask and the 1988 Blob), and I tried to see everything I could on the big screen (still do, for the most part). But I ended up picking it up a few years later off the Horror shelf of the local Mom & Pop video store where, if you can believe it, movies are still $1.00 a rental.
It's got a familiar story: Busy, childless Maggie O'Connor (Kim Basinger) discovers her junkie little sister at her door one night, having just given birth to an infant she's unable to take care of. When her sister takes off, Maggie decides to raise the child herself, even though it is discovered that she is autistic, and even worse, has red hair. But the strangeness doesn't end there; the girl has a spiritual nature and special abilities, and seems to be the target of Satanic kidnappers. Just as we're finding this out, Maggie's sister shows up again with a smooth-talking new cult-leader husband on her arm, and she wants her daughter back.
The film wasn't great, but it ended up being pretty good. It had an impressive cast. Besides Basinger, who does good work and is still quite pretty, there was Christina Ricci as a repentant cult member, Jimmy Smits as a sympathetic Catholic detective, and Ian Holm in a tiny part as a priest. It wasn't necessarily scary, but it did have a compelling story and likable characters. It had a truly reprehensible group of villains, led by tyranist's buddy, Rufus Sewell, who is only a millimeter more evil than the girl's mother.
It was sort of the opposite of The Omen, with a child so pure and sweet that she can change/save the world. Unfortunately the child had red hair and the name Cody, so I couldn't help but suspect it.
The bane of modern Horror, CGI was used quite a bit. The computer-generated demons looked good, the CG rats didn't.
I avoided this one, both in the theaters and on video, but hey, it wasn't so bad. The religous stuff, with abundant angels and miracles, was a tad heavy-handed. I wonder what audiences thought. A potential problem with religious Horror is, what if you don't hold to the same religious beliefs as the film? For example, while watching Bless the Child, what does a Jew think when a character uses a rosary to thwart evil? What does a Buddhist think when Satan is shown? What does a Jehovah's Witness think when he sees angels save the day? That's not a criticism, really, I just wonder.
I'd Recommend It To: Those who like this sort of thing. The film is harmless, really.

Total Skulls: 10

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?