Now that I got my convention reviews and tribute all done, it is time to jump back into my old habits. I haven't watched a movie that was sent to me by Netflix in almost a month now. Since I'm sort of back into review mode again, I guess this would be a good time for one. Before I jump into this review, check out my review for Nina Forever if you want to. For today's review, I watched the film The New Daughter (2009), which may have been the year I actually added it to my queue.
After a recent divorce, John (Kevin Costner) finds himself in a new house with his young teenage daughter Louisa (Ivana Baquero) and his younger son Sam (Gattlin Griffith). John was gone for work a lot, so he wasn't around much for his kids. This causes some tension, especially with Louisa. The kids decide to explore the area they now find themselves in and find a large mound not far from the house. Louisa seems drawn to it, spending more and more time there. She gets home late and sometimes covered in mud. Louisa often doesn't remember where she has been or what she did. John becomes increasingly worried about his daughter and it turns out he has every right to be.
The New Daughter was written by John Travis, which was based off a short story of the same name by John Connolly, and was directed by Luiso Berdejo. I wasn't sure what to expect from this film. Despite having Kevin Costner in it, it isn't a film I have heard a lot about over the years since its release. After watching it, I can see why it never made any waves. I enjoyed it at times, but it never pushed itself to make it a great film. The setup for the story was nice, but from there it can feel slow and dull for a while. I get what they were trying to do with the slow build up, but it wasn't working as well as they intended it to. Part of the reason it didn't work so well was the acting, which I will get into later. Another reason is they didn't really drop enough information in order to be all that concerned with Louisa until late in the film. Sure there are noises outside that don't sound like anything we know. Once in a while, we catch a glimpse of something strange or it could be a person for all we know. It did make me wonder why Louisa was going out to the mound with strange things going on, but she always came back. Despite being muddy and having sores on her back, she didn't seem worse for wear. John claims his daughter is changing, but since we never got to know her prior to everything changing in her life, it is hard to say she is changing because of the mound. She comes across as very angry that her mom left so I could see her lashing out at others as well. There are also small plot devices that just get left without any follow up to them. The one that bothered me the most is a girl who was picking on Louisa at school. We see the two in a stairway landing with Louisa looking down the stairs like she is considering pushing this girl. Next, we see them both in the nurse's office, Louisa isn't feeling good and the other girl is said to have broken her arm...and that is all we are pretty much told about it. I don't mind figuring things out on my own, but with something like that, it is a bit hard to know what actually happened. It is never mentioned again and we never see the bully again either. The New Daughter does make up for these things a bit by having a nice lore to go with the mound. Nothing is really said about it until late in the film, and it isn't explored as much as I would have liked, but it was still interesting. The creatures that are eventually introduced are pretty cool as well.
There isn't much for special effects to be found. It is said that one person who is found dead was snacked on by something that had a bite mark that was never seen before. While we see the body in the ground, I couldn't really see anything wrong with the body. As I mentioned, the creatures were cool looking. The "making of" feature found on the Blu-ray shows that the creatures are human, in that I mean they are played by actual humans with a lot of makeup and it looks like a body suit of some kind. It was nice to see that they went to the trouble of actually making the creatures instead of just using CGI for them. The acting, despite there being a decent a cast, wasn't all that impressive most of the time. Kevin Costner improved over time, but I couldn't find him interesting at all for the first half of the film. I can't say I've ever been much of a fan of Costner, but he does have some good movies. I did like Ivana Baquero in her role, her acting anyway, but it was just hard to get a handle on her character since there was nothing to go by on how she normally is. Samantha Mathis shows up as a school teacher and something of a love interest to Costner's character. She isn't around a lot but is found in more scenes than I was expecting. James Gammon and Sandra Ellis Lafferty also show up in much smaller roles.
I wasn't really sure what I thought of the ending for The New Daughter. It made sense and normally I like darker endings, but this one didn't sit well with me. I can't put my finger on why I felt that way. It didn't ruin the movie for me in any way, so I'm not sure why I didn't like it. I don't always watch deleted scenes, but in the "making of" feature, there was a scene that was cut towards the end of the film that I was curious about. Odd enough, I couldn't find that scene. I didn't watch them all mostly because I couldn't figure out why some were even on there. Like one called "Fire" which shows the fire in the grill for a few seconds. Did that honestly need to be included in the deleted scenes? The New Daughter started off kind of bad but does manage to get better towards the end. It is really too bad they didn't hint more at the lore or explored it more than they did. There seemed to be something pretty interesting there. I would watch this movie again, but it is one of those that it is hard to suggest to someone to find. If you should come across it and it sounds interesting to you, then give it a watch. It is hardly a great film, but there is a lot worse out there as well. A fun movie for a late night watch at the very least.
3 out of 5 The new Daughter couldn't have been any worse than the old daughter
After a recent divorce, John (Kevin Costner) finds himself in a new house with his young teenage daughter Louisa (Ivana Baquero) and his younger son Sam (Gattlin Griffith). John was gone for work a lot, so he wasn't around much for his kids. This causes some tension, especially with Louisa. The kids decide to explore the area they now find themselves in and find a large mound not far from the house. Louisa seems drawn to it, spending more and more time there. She gets home late and sometimes covered in mud. Louisa often doesn't remember where she has been or what she did. John becomes increasingly worried about his daughter and it turns out he has every right to be.
The New Daughter was written by John Travis, which was based off a short story of the same name by John Connolly, and was directed by Luiso Berdejo. I wasn't sure what to expect from this film. Despite having Kevin Costner in it, it isn't a film I have heard a lot about over the years since its release. After watching it, I can see why it never made any waves. I enjoyed it at times, but it never pushed itself to make it a great film. The setup for the story was nice, but from there it can feel slow and dull for a while. I get what they were trying to do with the slow build up, but it wasn't working as well as they intended it to. Part of the reason it didn't work so well was the acting, which I will get into later. Another reason is they didn't really drop enough information in order to be all that concerned with Louisa until late in the film. Sure there are noises outside that don't sound like anything we know. Once in a while, we catch a glimpse of something strange or it could be a person for all we know. It did make me wonder why Louisa was going out to the mound with strange things going on, but she always came back. Despite being muddy and having sores on her back, she didn't seem worse for wear. John claims his daughter is changing, but since we never got to know her prior to everything changing in her life, it is hard to say she is changing because of the mound. She comes across as very angry that her mom left so I could see her lashing out at others as well. There are also small plot devices that just get left without any follow up to them. The one that bothered me the most is a girl who was picking on Louisa at school. We see the two in a stairway landing with Louisa looking down the stairs like she is considering pushing this girl. Next, we see them both in the nurse's office, Louisa isn't feeling good and the other girl is said to have broken her arm...and that is all we are pretty much told about it. I don't mind figuring things out on my own, but with something like that, it is a bit hard to know what actually happened. It is never mentioned again and we never see the bully again either. The New Daughter does make up for these things a bit by having a nice lore to go with the mound. Nothing is really said about it until late in the film, and it isn't explored as much as I would have liked, but it was still interesting. The creatures that are eventually introduced are pretty cool as well.
There isn't much for special effects to be found. It is said that one person who is found dead was snacked on by something that had a bite mark that was never seen before. While we see the body in the ground, I couldn't really see anything wrong with the body. As I mentioned, the creatures were cool looking. The "making of" feature found on the Blu-ray shows that the creatures are human, in that I mean they are played by actual humans with a lot of makeup and it looks like a body suit of some kind. It was nice to see that they went to the trouble of actually making the creatures instead of just using CGI for them. The acting, despite there being a decent a cast, wasn't all that impressive most of the time. Kevin Costner improved over time, but I couldn't find him interesting at all for the first half of the film. I can't say I've ever been much of a fan of Costner, but he does have some good movies. I did like Ivana Baquero in her role, her acting anyway, but it was just hard to get a handle on her character since there was nothing to go by on how she normally is. Samantha Mathis shows up as a school teacher and something of a love interest to Costner's character. She isn't around a lot but is found in more scenes than I was expecting. James Gammon and Sandra Ellis Lafferty also show up in much smaller roles.
I wasn't really sure what I thought of the ending for The New Daughter. It made sense and normally I like darker endings, but this one didn't sit well with me. I can't put my finger on why I felt that way. It didn't ruin the movie for me in any way, so I'm not sure why I didn't like it. I don't always watch deleted scenes, but in the "making of" feature, there was a scene that was cut towards the end of the film that I was curious about. Odd enough, I couldn't find that scene. I didn't watch them all mostly because I couldn't figure out why some were even on there. Like one called "Fire" which shows the fire in the grill for a few seconds. Did that honestly need to be included in the deleted scenes? The New Daughter started off kind of bad but does manage to get better towards the end. It is really too bad they didn't hint more at the lore or explored it more than they did. There seemed to be something pretty interesting there. I would watch this movie again, but it is one of those that it is hard to suggest to someone to find. If you should come across it and it sounds interesting to you, then give it a watch. It is hardly a great film, but there is a lot worse out there as well. A fun movie for a late night watch at the very least.
3 out of 5 The new Daughter couldn't have been any worse than the old daughter
