Solid and creepy

Rating: 8/10 (1 November 2009)

In this fine suspense/psychological horror film, an affluent couple in Connecticut decides to adopt a new child (she already has two children, one deaf, and has just lose her third in a miscarriage) and settles in an orphanage for a seemingly charming and very precocious nine year old Russian girl named Esther. Soon, though, the new member of the family shows a maturity well beyond her years and starts making terrible mischief with an escalating maliciousness that knows no boundaries, manipulating every member of the family to turn against each other and soon involving herself in real (as opposed to merely psychological) violence. Her adopted mother starts to suspect a terrible secret lies behind her. Eventually, things will escalate to murder. Well filmed (though there are too many false suspense moments) and especially well scripted, this movie has a final twist that I will not discuss here as not to spoil it to future viewers, but let me say that it is very nifty, it makes a lot of sense of what we just see before and puts this movie well above other run of the mill demon child stories. The performance by 12 year old Isabelle Fuhmann as an evil woman hiding inside a 9 year old girl is just mind blowing. Vera Farmiga, as the troubled mother seeing with impotence how this girl from hell is breaking her family is also fine.