Paedophobic tract that treads very familiar territory.
The plot:
Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard are a professional couple, trying to come to terms with the loss of a daughter during childbirth.
Several months pass, and the pair decide to adopt a child.
Heading to the local nunnery (!) they opt for a nine year old Russian orphan named Esther. Well-mannered, intelligent, artistic, she seems ideal but, soon after arriving at the family home, things take a turn for the sinister.
Is Esther all she appears to be?
Or is she in fact the spawn of Satan himself?
I'm not going to tell you, of course.
Though this is a tale that has been told previously, in various forms (The Omen, Village of the Damned, even Single White Female to some extent), it's still solid enough entertainment.
Vera Farmiga is excellent, as always, but the standout performance has to go to Isabelle Fuhrman, only 11 at the time, who is convincingly menacing and creepy.
With a run time that just creeps over the threshold into 'slightly too long,' with some tighter editing, this could have been a real gem.
As it is, rock solid creepy thriller fodder.
4 out of 5
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