Bless the Child | | Cast : | Kim Basinger, Jimmy Smits, Rufus Sewell | | Director : | Chuck Russell | | Studio : | Paramount Studio | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Dolby, Widescreen | | Released Date : | August 11, 2000 | | DVD Released Date : | August 19, 2003 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | May 01, 2005 | | Summary | Religious Escapism | Content
 | Coming from a long line of religion themed thrillers and horror films, this could have been much worse. On a scale of 1 ('End of Days') to 10 ('The Omen'), this falls right in between. If you're looking for a no-brainer thriller, you've come to the right place.
Basinger plays Maggie, who's just adopted her sister Jenna's child after she ran out on her, never to be seen for six years. Jenna randomly comes back on her daughter's sixth birthday with a mysterious man who appears to be a doctor. They want to take the child, but Maggie refuses. Alas, the child is kidnapped, leading Maggie into the world of a satanic cult to figure out why the child is so important to them. Smits plays a preist turned detective helping Basinger out.
The movie is not the greatest, but it does entertain and is not as bad as many may lead you to believe. |
| Rating | | | Date | March 24, 2005 | | Summary | Why does everyone hate this? | Content
| I love movies with religious tones to them, despite not being any which way religious myself. Stigmata and End Of Days, and now this, are excellent examples, although Constantine overdoes it slightly. The trailer gets it totally wrong, and makes it look more like an Exorcist movie, than what it eventually ends up being. Don't think it's going to be an Exorcist movie, it's so much deeper, and I ended up working out what was going to happen quite soon into the movie. So unlike me.
The actors in this also do an excellent job. Everyone raves about gorgeous Kim Basinger is, but they forget she can do plain & ordinary just as well, and pulls it off. Rufus Sewell was perfect for the cult leader he played (with shades of Scientology?), and with those eyes, god I'm surprised I didn't have nightmares after watching this movie! The slight lazy eye makes him stand out from everyone else. Jimmy Smits, wow! For an older guy, he's definitely kept in shape, and looks good! I wasn't sure about Angela Bettis' character. She played it well, don't get me wrong, but from the roles I've seen her in (only this & Girl Interrupted), it's almost like she plays the anorexic, drug-addict very well. Probably cos she's ultra skinny, and needs a good feeding. Christina Ricci should have been in this movie more, as she's an excellent actress, but she's only a couple of scenes, and then gets killed - real or not?! Funky scene though, you'll jump out of your seat at this bit.
The bridge where the car "accident" takes place is actually the Blue Water Bridge between Sarnia, Ontario and Port Huron, Michigan. It was being "twinned" at the time so the whole bridge was closed down for repairs and was available for numerous re-takes. The scenery shots of NYC were then placed in the background, although people who grew up there recognize the shores as being Sarnia and Pt. Huron, respectively, not NYC.
The subway station where the attack on Meg takes place is a "ghost" station on the Toronto subway that is used frequently as a stand in for New York subways. The city's film office wanted to leave it set up as a NYC station but the Toronto fire department nixed that idea. The station is below the Bay station on the Bloor line, on the track connecting the Bloor and Yonge lines. At one time trains went from one line to the other - thus the station - but the practice was discontinued because of switching problems. (There is also a "ghost" station beneath the Queen Street station. It was roughed in 1954 for a planned Queen Street subway which never was built.)
In the original script, a character is deliberately pushed off a subway platform. This had to be changed to an accidental fall before the Toronto Transit Commission would allow filming on its property.
When the candles in the cathedral ignite together, the camera pulls back and Maggie's shirt can be seen blowing, as if the candles were in fact being blown out, and film was run backwards.
The line "the devils greatest trick was convincing man that he didn't exist" is a reference to a similar line in another movie of the same Genre, End of Days (1999). In which Father Kovak (Rod Steiger) says: "Satan's greatest trick was convincing man that he didn't exist.". And also to The Usual Suspects (1995) where the line "The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing man that he didn't exist." shows up.
This is also based on a book, which looks good, and I managed to find it in a bookcase in our house soon after getting the DVD, so I might give that a try soon.
I wouldn't believe the bad reviews that you read about this, at least if you think it looks interesting, give it a chance. I enjoyed it, and glad I got it now. Pick it up cheap though. |
| Rating | | | Date | January 17, 2005 | | Summary | Shades of Scientology... | Content
| A little girl named "Cody" supposedly representing the "light side" is born, whom which is heralded by a bright star shining in the heavens like the nazarene fable. A cult-leader takes on the role of Herod in attempting to capture this special child, labelled herein as "The Slaughter of Innocence", in the process, murdering children born in the same week, much like that presented in Omen 3, which displayed the same dynamic. At first, she is misdiagnosed with autism, for being so introverted, but steadily begins demonstrating supernatural abilities, particularly in the telekinetic vein, which catches the attention of one of the cult leader's lackeys; the cult-leader charms his way into the life of the single, drug-addicted, thieving & emaciated mother named 'Jenna', who dumped the child with her older sister Maggie O'Connor {played by Kim Basinger}, who takes the child as her own, until the lowlife 'mother' returns with the Cult-leader to kidnap the child, in order to brainwash her towards the 'Dark Side', or to sacrifice her if she does not turn to darkness. The cult is more reminiscent of Scientology in its aesthetics & iconography, rather than some satanistic cult, although the adolescent thugs match the gothic/devil-worshipper criteria. Which in one notable scene, beat the hell out of Christina Ricci's character {a little goth-(...)}, eventually decapitating her in a subway, through the behest of demonic enitites circumnavigating the area as she is beaten into a bloody pulp. . A nice effect.
The demonic manifestations witnessed by Basinger's character at various spots are remarkable, given marvellous life. The whole story, after she is chased down by the cult to retrieve the girl whose attempted re-kidnapping in a poignant scene lands her in her car travelling in the opposite direction on a bridge highway, at which she crashes into the edge, the car teetering on the verge of plunging into the rushing river, but she is rescued by a burley angel who dematerializes - that is one thing that is noticed now & again, these "angels" appearing here & there to help her & the girl along in various places, rescuing them out of some tough spots, where they would have otherwise surely perished. As the angels appear, so do the demons manifest themselves in the various "humans" surrounding the cult-leader, whose henchmen speed around in a black limousine {reminiscient of Mike Warnke's fictional "The Satan Seller"}.
Jimi Smits plays an occult investigator {a-la Randy Emon}, who is pictured briefly leafing through The Devil's Notebook among his collection of occult books, although the camera does not once close-up on it, but instead shows the back from a distance - but does display a "photo" {looks photoshopped} on one fabricated collage of Dr. LaVey in horned cowl.
The materialization of Satan in a converted church {surrounded with flying, graceful serpantine black demons} is splendid {recollections of The Devil's Rain comes to mind}, transmogrifying from a legion of rats {likened in the Francis Ford Coppola version of Dracula} onto an infernal throne behind the altar, upon which the little girl awaits to be sacrificed, or to rule the world, depending upon her decision. She is prepared in a bridal gown, brought forth by two black robed cultists. Well, she decides for the blindlight, & is "delivered", as it were, by etherial angels who distract the cult-leader, who is then shot by Smits.
The movie does play in the typical binary scenario of good vs. evil, so of course there is the demoralization, but The Devil is not confronted directly, but only makes a brief cameo appearance as described above.
The villain {played by Rufus Sewell} & his organization described in this movie are in the newage description, complete with an insignia which resembles the pyramidical O.T.O.'s, with the caption "You Are Your Own God" {so at least there is a minimal portrayal of Satanic philosophy}; although the ideology presented herein is more akin to a bug-eyed satanified Jim Jones.
Included in this DVD are interviews with director Chuck Russell, as well as with the actors, & allows to jump to various scenes throughout the film. And the cover portrays a striking inverted cross comprised of flames. The film is not Satanic per se, but can be entertaining with the suspension of disbelief. |
| Rating | | | Date | January 05, 2005 | | Summary | Stands apart from the rest | Content
| What makes this film special is that:
1.) Instead of barely escaping evil (and having the snot beat out of you in the process), Good clearly kicks evil but and triumphs (a frightening/feel good movie).
and
2.) The makers of this movie have clearly interviewed people who have "seen things" and tried with more than some success to show evil that way on the screen. (With that said, some sceens do lose a little on the small screen vs. the theatre.)
Casting was very well done for this movie - choices for evil cult leader, loving mother (aunt actually), and street trash cult member were excellent.
Unlike some horror movies, this is one you can watch over again and still enjoy it. |
| Rating | | | Date | October 12, 2004 | | Summary | Unsurprisingly Good | Content
| This film is a great watch from start to finish. The only area it fails in is the mythos; the director deliberately avoided any real occult elements... it was all made up for the film. listen to the DVD commentary for the info on that side of the film.
That being said, it is a great film. It is pretty obvious which cult the film "cult" is supposed to be a parody of, and the film makers avoid enough similarities to avoid a law suit. Anyway, aside from that, its a great mix of made up supernatural elements, and action, and some superb acting. And Basinger is great, both visually and in the acting.
Smits does some great horror genre work this side of his sojourn in the 1988 film THE BELIEVERS.
|
|
