Expediente 39

The beginning intrigued me. What is the entity in question, and why is it tormenting Lilith, and her parents before her? Why do the parents blame Lilith when she is clearly a victim? This is the main thing Case 39 has going for it: you won't know at first what type of movie it will end up being. Later in the film, though, it has chosen its bag of clichés and sticks to them. Which bag? Ah, that would be telling.

This being said, the common devices director Alvart chooses for the film still work, and Ferland (Lilith) does a good job in a demanding role for a girl who was twelve or thirteen years old when the movie was completed, on 2007. It was finally released in October of 2010, the month of Ferland's sixteenth birthday.

Why you should see it You enjoy things, other than your annoying upstairs neighbor, that go "bump" in the night. You still find Zellweger to be as adorable as she was the first time she said "you had me at hello," and not nearly as annoying as that line became upon its 300th repetition. You like your paranormal phenomena to surround pale, creepy kids.

Why you shouldn't see it You're terribly afraid of hornets, heights, shotguns, ovens, carving knives, bodies of water, forks, and blunt objects, and you don't feel up to confronting all of these phobias within the space of two hours.