Social worker Emily Jenkins (Renee Zellweger) fights to save a girl (Jodelle
Ferland) from her parents. Emily finds out the situation is more evil and
dangerous than she expected. She enlists the help of her psychologist boyfriend
(Bradley Cooper) and Detective Mike Barron (Ian McShane) to solve the mystery behind why the parents want the girl Lilith
dead. Are the parents really crazy or will Emily find out there is another truth
behind what she sees on the surface?
CASE 39 is a creepy horror film. It paints itself as a thriller before adding in the horror film elements. It is the journey of one woman to save a child and she finds out the kid may not be what she appears
to be. The only part of the film I think is a letdown is the ending. The cast is top notch with Ian McShane threatening to steal the film with the
very few scenes he is in and I love the performance the little girl gives (with a variety
of emotions and moods). Christian Alvart directs the film with so much detail
and paces it expertly, but I still think the wrongfully ignored PANDORUM is a film you should check out after this one if
you haven’t seen the superior PANDORUM.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The 30 minutes of deleted scenes include
scenes that would have padded the movie out, and alternate death scene for one character, and an alternate ending I think
is more true to the movie than the theatrical ending. The only problem with the
scenes overall is they are time coded letterboxed fit into a widescreen frame making the scenes very small on the screen.
The four featurettes are mostly promo fluff
containing a few interesting tidbits like how detailed Director Christian Alvart is in storyboarding his films and how many
set-ups he shoots in a day. Three of the featurettes focus briefly on behind-the-scenes
details of three major scenes in the film.
FILED UNDER ‘EVIL’: INSIDE
CASE 39
TURNING UP THE HEAT ON THE CHILL FACTOR
INSIDE THE HORNET’S NEST
PLAYING WITH FIRE
I
wish there was an audio commentary for the film or even commentary for why the deleted scenes were cut.
FINAL ANALYSIS: CASE 39 is a creepy horror film which I wish had the alternate ending attached to it instead of the
ending the film has. Kudos for the amount of deleted scenes included on
the DVD (just pity on how they were presented).
This DVD review is ©1-7-2010 David
Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. Send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com