There's Something Wrong with this Movie..(Feel like I've seen it all before)

Rating: 5/10 (7 September 2010)

**** SPOILERS!!*****
I was advised to watch this movie a it was apparently "amazing and bloody terrifying" According to a friend of mine. Well,I love terrifying, and it's been ages since I've seen any decent horror movies appear on the big screen- so I jumped at the chance to watch this one.OK,this movie actually wasn't THAT bad. Having said that however, I personally didn't find it too amazing either.
The first two things that came to mind with this film were:1.The very last line is clearly stolen from the Ring 2 and the situation in which it appears is also way too similar(In fact,the whole evil girl with questionable history thing has been done in an all too similar fashion enough times by now..)
2.It is in fact almost an almost identical story line to "The good son" with the attempted husband stealing,wife bumping off antics of "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle" and the token creepy screwed up girl with no apparent history and zany mother from "Ring"/"The Ring"or,"Ju-on"/"The Grudge" series.
I decided that maybe it was a bit harsh to overly judge the movie purely based on these facts,so I decided to forget that I had seen this all before and look at it for it's own merit and individuality. But it still sadly left me cold in the end.
The characters seemed to stumble their way through the entire movie, switching personalities ever five minutes to suit the scene. Hints such as the "cheating" husband seem to have a point but then prove red herrings,dropped from the plot line as soon as they are mentioned leaving several unanswered questions that would have been usefully wrapped up by the end if not before.
There comes a revelation that the mother is apparently a recovering /recovered alcoholic, but the scene where she has it out with the therapist seems a bit too harshly played from the husband's point of view.He goes from being this exceptionally loving husband, having had a few niggles with his wife-to suddenly pulling an emotional 360 and completely turning on her...
Which brings me to my next point,The father then allows himself to get totally steaming while Left in the care of his two other children and almost seduced by Esther who is suddenly wearing a flirty grown up outfit and shed loads of makeup.I also cannot get how on earth these parents could not see what this girl actually was doing wrong. They clearly huge signs and the distress being cause to their children but still ignored it and allowed them to be left alone with her.The mother, who does actually start to suspect Esther is, shall we say, "not right" from near enough the word go, still fumbles along blindly watching it all unfold up to a point.
Let's look at this closer: 1.They didn't even think to fully wait for her history before adopting her. (not to mention an alcoholic who had been in jail for neglect being allowed to adopt anyway so easily..?)
2.Esther was extremely violent and dangerous,had been in a mental institute,where staff were fully aware of her "Secret". She then killed her adopted families and yet she somehow(not mentioned) got out and managed to get into an orphanage with no other known history and be re adopted.
And finally-yes,it's the"dramatic" twist.I Kind of guessed just from basic reviews saying it would be an obvious one,and confirmed it within less than 15 minutes into the movie itself to be honest! And going back to the whole over looking thing- She was examined by a DOCTOR. Who did not expect she was not a 9 year old child?? She looks anything but 9 without all her get-up on!
There were some redeeming qualities however-such as great acting by Isabelle Fuhrman who plays Esther,quite a challenging role for someone so young and she pulls of the accent very well too.There are also some jumpy and slightly unnerving bits ( I won't spoil any more!) all of which left me quite on edge. The paintings were quite creepy and cleverly done too.But overall I was fairly disappointed by the whole affair, it could have been played out so much better.