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Monday, July 7, 2025

The Fun and Folly of 'Case 39' Revealed

The Fun and Folly of 'Case 39' Revealed

Jenkins hides and waits while Ames is attacked by crawling critters.

When going into "Case 39," you expect the usual fare of a possession-themed horror flick and in some ways the viewer is surprised and let down. How pleasantly either is encountered is a personal issue. But many may find "Case 39" to be fun. It is not a genre-setting movie in any way and yet it melds, in some sense, two disparate forms to create its own animal with undertones of both horror and crime drama.

There is, however, very little crime to be found in the veracity of the plot. Renée Zellweger stars as social worker Emily Jenkins with emotional damage from her mother's death in a car crash and a strong attachment to her job. She grows concerned about the case of ten-year-old Lilith Sullivan, (Jodelle Micah Ferland) and comes to believe she is endangered by her clearly unstable parents. This is confirmed when the Sullivans throw Lilith into an oven and try to cook her alive.

After Jenkins and Detective Mike Barron (Ian McShane) save the girl, her parents are incarcerated and Lilith is placed in Emily's temporary custody. However, it becomes quickly apparent that she is, as her name implies, a devil child. The insidious little changeling causes the deaths of her parents, Emily's best friend, Douglas Ames and Detective Barron, while directing another child to murder his parents in their sleep. Emily realizes that none of these murders are coincidences and determines she must kill the girl to survive.

The acting here cannot be generally faulted. Most of Zellweger's scenes are convincing while Ferland and McShane create trustworthy characters. The only weakness to be found is partially in the performance of Bradley Cooper as a funny, lovable, unimportant Ames and the thoroughly one-dimensional Sullivans. With the exception of Adrian Lester as Emily's superior, secondary characters seem uninteresting.

The problem with this movie, though, is in the execution. There are some genuinely unsettling scenes caused by Lilith's cleverer mind tricks and the admirable stillness with which Ferland plays the girl demon. However, more than not, the film veers in silliness and conundrum.

Very little is defined in the movie, partially to the benefit of the creature's abilities but also to the disadvantage of the story's momentary coherence.

Many parts we are sure are real, others fake, and some indistinct. These disguised transitions create a surrealism and artfulness in some instances, but often serve to decrease the audience's willingness to believe enough to be involved.

The silliness of the whole affair arises in an insufficiently set mood at the start and such scenes as Zellweger curled up on her bed with a butcher knife, and a character secreting hornets from every orifice while frantically killing them. Things get worse with a pun about rap music videos and Lilith turning first into what looks like a zombie werewolf and then into a Feejee Mermaid. The final scene, as Zellweger stares off into the horizon, is anything but conclusive.

However, some audience members who come for the less serious in their horror fare may enjoy laughing at the ridiculous failures, jokes, and possible memes at the very soul of "Case 39." At the same time, this is a definite skip for Saw fans, as there is about as much grind house to be found as in 90s Disney. Suspense fans will also be a little underwhelmed, as everything hidden is something the audience already suspects and variable in how well it is concealed. In the end, "Case 39" will not change your life, but it may make your moment. Just be happy, wherever you stand, that nothing begs for a sequel.

Jenkins hides and waits while Ames is attacked by crawling critters.

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