This underrated movie deserves more attention
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dirrtyLOVE — 21 years ago(September 30, 2004 11:23 PM)
People say this movie is in the genre of 'Horror', yet, to me, this story was not scary what-so-ever. But it doesn't stop this movie from being pretty good, IMO. I was surprised by the rating people have given this movie, I thought it was actually pretty good/interesting.
"The prettiest people do the ugliest things to the road to riches and diamond rings." -
probatikos — 21 years ago(November 28, 2004 05:41 PM)
I counld.nt agree with you more. I thought this movie was excellant. The writer even brought out some basic truths. Such as: The first thing satan was able to convince people is he doesn't exist and then that God doesn't exist. They also so the form in which evil takes to deceive the people. That how angels can interceed when we do not even know it. And one of the greatest parts in my opinion was when Eric Stark tried to get the little girl to step off the ledge by tempting her and testing God and she out wits him by turning around and saying "you first".
It was and still is, my hope that some who watch this movie catch on to some small part of the truths in this movie. -
Ponge — 21 years ago(December 28, 2004 03:08 PM)
I would give this movie 9 out of ten. I don't like horror movies at all, and those of you who say there were no horror bits obviously didn't jump out of there seats when the girls head rolled off. I do thinks that Rufus played a good part as the devils advocate but i agree that his role sould have been explored futher. This movie was good and I like the fact that good beat evil, even if I wanted to see Rufus for longer, I would have liked it more if the girl had been able to convert Eric.
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lbach-1 — 21 years ago(January 05, 2005 09:48 AM)
Personally, I thought Bless the Child was awful. Truly truly awful. Kim Basinger's acting was so terrible, it was as if she was lifted from a bad '70s action movie. I didn't think any of the characters were that well-developed, and the filmmakers seemed to focus a lot of their attention on big explosions and action instead of plot.
A few months after seeing this in the theaters, I read the book by Cathy Cash Spellman, which is the basis for this movie. At that point, my view on this movie took on a whole new dimension. The book is completely different, well-written, gripping, and a heck of a lot more believable than the film. Relationships between characters are completely different: Maggie is Cody's grandmother in the book, for example, not her aunt, and there's a lot more development of the priest's character in the novel; he's not just some wheelchair-bound theologian who is used entirely for exposition.
If you actually liked this movie, read the book.
"Seriously, if God and Christianity are nothing more than fairy-tales to you, than surely you could watch BTC with the same attitude you would toward Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter?"
I can't resist this. Dude, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter
are
fairy tales; in order to watch Bless the Child with the same attitude as watching those movies, we'd have to think of it all as a fairy tale, or at the very least a complex myth.Life is short, but the years are long. -
kevkraft4 — 21 years ago(February 17, 2005 07:52 AM)
I've seen the film exactly three times and it was THE movie that prompted my to seriously consider making movies. "That's the calliber of movies [Christians] should be making!" I said the first time, as the final credits began rolling.
I agree with others who have pointed out that, with supernatural thriller, because of the way the Worlds, people are fascinated when evil win out, causing little girls' heads to spin around and vomit pea soup into the faces of priests, while Satan burns down the church where alters drip with the blood from human sacrifices, now rippling with the agitation of legions of demons within who laugh as pretty young women hang themselves from balconeys before being impaled by a church spire, before being decapitated. Is that really entertaining? And what does that say about Evil, that's it's stronger and better than Good? I'd love to see a paradigm shift where that genre of movie is concerned. And such concerns speak directly to the theme of BLESS THIS CHILD.
As for Holliston Coleman, for being so young at the time, she remains one of the best actresses I've ever seen! She was so good it was scary! As an up-and-coming producer myself I sincerely hope to work with her on a project in the not-too-distant future! -
Da Derga — 20 years ago(July 14, 2005 07:42 AM)
"I can't resist this. Dude, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter
are
fairy tales; in order to watch Bless the Child with the same attitude as watching those movies, we'd have to think of it all as a fairy tale, or at the very least a complex myth."
Uh, yeah. I think that's the point the original poster was trying to make with his statement. -
retibar — 20 years ago(November 20, 2005 02:43 AM)
As a fan of Kim Basinger I've seen this film many times and also bought the DVD. I don't think that it's bad at all. I found it entertaining and exciting. I don't say that it's a classic or outstanding but it's a fun supernatural thriller. You can't compare it to 'Rosemary's Baby' witch is a Polanski-classic but it's good on it's own way. Here in Hungary it came out only on DVD so I thought that it was a failure at the US box office but now I see that it's gross isn't bad at all.
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TheAce-Winchester — 19 years ago(June 29, 2006 06:03 AM)
Look, I liked this movie when I saw it on USA, or maybe it was FX. Anyway, I liked this movie, and am surprised that anyone found it point blank bad. I am a christian, but still, if I wasn't I would have liked this movie all the same. I really don't like how some books and movies or even people can turn to the devil, the source of all evil, and praise him, or even portray him in a light that is anything but what he is.
If you love Jesus Christ and are 100% proud of it copy this and make your signature! -
Hyokano — 19 years ago(July 05, 2006 12:51 PM)
Interesting! I only heard of this movie from a movie forum, but since there's so much contravercy over the low rating, I must admit I'm really intrigued. So there it is, on the top of my Netflix queue Can't wait to see it!
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oyster_without_soul — 18 years ago(December 09, 2007 01:30 AM)
I didn't expect much, but boy was I surprised how bad this movie was. Of course there are much worse films than this, but this movie was made on a good budget, and it had some good actors. The story was formulaic, there were many elements already seen so many times, and some scenes look like they have been taken directly from other films (i.e. "evil bums" from Carpenter's "Prince of Darkness, etc, or "satanic nanny" from "The Omen") Dialogues range from cheesy to outright silly, and director calls for "deux ex machina" element to help the story one too many times (i.e. when Maggie visits the church, and all of the sudden a nun shows up and says that they have been watching her and know what is going on, or the angels in the end). And the CGI demons that occupy Maggie's visions that warn her of a dark and evil place, deserve a post on their own. I don't think Christina Ricci will brag that she acted in this one
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codyhoskins — 14 years ago(April 11, 2011 10:46 AM)
Yes The Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby, and the Omen are original horror movies in their own light. Bless the Child just rips off of all of those films and uses them to tell some kind of moral fairy tale instead. Horror to me usually goes beyond morality and is there to scare you with the horror of evil. Even if we sympathize with characters like Rosemary and Gregory Peck's character in their movies when they try to outwit the Devil, we can tell that they will lose because of the dark edge to those movies. You drsantanico are right that the dark endings are what make horror work.
While this movie has its share of the dark side, the problem is that it shows evil too clearly and too predictably that it hardly ever scary. The evil characters are known from the very beginning and always pop up just when Maggie thinks she's got the situation under control. To me, that's not scary because it feels more like a conspiracy thriller and ruins really the shock of horror. For me, horror is supposed to hit you when you least expect it. That's what makes films like The Omen and Rosemary's Baby appealing is that the horror comes in places you don't expect. Next-door neighbors who turn out to be Devil worshippers in the end after seeing them as friendly people for most of Rosemary's Baby, that's chilling because we're meant to think these people can be trusted and that they're her friends, now Rosemary realizes she's screwed because they have been playing her for their Satanic plot the whole time. In the Omen, terrible things keep happening as though they are natural, yet they are manipulated by the supernatural. That's also chilling because it shows that anything could happen through the forces of nature but if it were supernatural-based then it's far worse. That's where horror is based on the imagination of what is out there causing the horror.
Bless the Child just ruins that imagination and shows all those CGI demons circling buildings and people in black running around after people as though we were looking at Mordor in LOTR and the Ringwraiths galloping after people respectively. That makes it feel less scary and look more fantastical. Everything is so black and white in this film, we know too clearly who is good and bad. The black that all the bad guys wear is the most cliched color of evil and becomes old. The manners are also so cliched; all the bad guys frown and they tell you to join them or die. Their methods are so stupid also; Eric Stark thinks he can change Cody into a demonic child by showing her horrible things like burning an old man, telling her to jump, and knocking out her aunt, then expecting her to join him. That's weak for a child to join evil because children at that age know what's good and evil so that's very stupid to try and cajole a child who has no interest in power or in watching people die. Darth Vader and the Emperor did a better job than that because they could see Luke's weaknesses and so they played on those weak aspects to try and cajole him and they nearly worked the more angry Luke became over the threat to his friends. The more Eric and his followers tried hard to imitate the popular villains of cinema, the more amateurish they became because they didn't do anything creative to become scary or sinister. Instead, I kept wishing for them to be killed sooner than later because they just made evil too boring and annoying. Besides, if they were smarter, they would have killed the girl to begin with. A girl who is destined to serve God was always targeted for death, say Jesus by King Herod in the Bible or Elora Danin by Queen Bavmorda in Willow. Trying to drive a girl to evil by acting evil is a failure. I thought the best villains of all time were the ones that didn't try to make you hate them because hating them outright would have made them incapable of exerting their power over you.
When I saw this movie as a teenager, I didn't think about its flaws because movies about good and evil were usually appealing to me. Now that I'm a young man and have seen most of the classics horror films and stories about good and evil, this film to me has no originality and uses too many weak copycat techniques that destroy the real power of the imagination of horror and make morality tales so used up. That's why I gave it away to Goodwill or someplace years ago because I couldn't bear to hold on to a movie that was such a cliched disgrace.