There's Something Wrong with this Movie..

Rating: 4/10 (11 April 2017)

I was advised to watch this movie a it was apparently amazing and bloody terrifying According to a friend of mine. Well, being as I love all things "terrifying", I sprinted toward the opportunity to watch this one.Maybe a casual stroll would have been better..
Okay I'll say this much-the 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 and could have pretty much served as deal breakers 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.The whole movie is basically like a mishmash of The Ring, The Good Son and The Hand That Rocks The Cradle.
It did occur to me 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. Not so easy though..
The characters seemed to stumble their way through the entire movie, switching personalities every five minutes to suit the scene changes. Hints such as the "cheating" husband seemed raised in the moment for drama but then vanish from the plot line as soon as they are mentioned. This is frustrating and leaves several unanswered questions that would have been usefully wrapped up by the end if not before.Take fro example, a revelation that the mother is apparently a recovering /recovered alcoholic. In the scene where she has it out with the therapist, Hubby 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. Old hubbsy then allows himself to get totally steaming drunk while Left in the care of his two other children AFTER berating his wife for said above issues. He is so Hammered at this point that he almost gets seduced by Esther. You know, the "child", who is suddenly wearing a flirty modern day grown up outfit and shed loads of makeup.
The family took an unfeasible leap of faith when they didn't even think to fully wait for Esther's history to be revealed before adopting her. (And just how, was the mother- a former alcoholic who had been in jail for child neglect allowed to adopt anyway so easily in the first place?) Firstly, She was examined by a DOCTOR. Who did not expect she was not a 9 year old child. Esther turns out to be extremely violent and dangerous,having herself been sectioned in a mental institute. The staff were fully aware of her "Secret" and yet, still felt adoption was suitable.I mean, sure let's just casually gloss over the fact the she kind of killed her previous adopted families. After all that,she managed to slip out of the place and get into an orphanage with no other known history and be re-adopted. Sure,okay.
I also cannot get how on earth these parents could not see what this girl actually was doing wrong. There are clearly huge signs. These bright neon signs are dismissed as much as the distress obviously being caused to their actual children, who get left alone with this pint sized psycho. To make matters more ludicrous, the mother who actually starts to suspect Esther is, "not right, still fumbles along blindly watching hell unfold.
And finally.. *drumroll*.... it's the"dramatic" twist time.I Kind of guessed just from basic reviews saying it would be an obvious one. Let me tell you in this review, it is an obvious one. Obvious from less than 15 minutes into the movie itself if you pay attention enough.
Okay, I know what you're thinking, I did say it wasn't all bad. So here are some of the more redeeming qualities:
Great acting by Isabelle Fuhrman who plays Esther. She is a kid, playing a psychotic adult playing a psychotic kid. I'll be fair, that is quite a challenging role for someone so young and she pulls it off very. There are also some jumpy and slightly unnerving bits The room 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 given the synopsis available.