BLESS THE CHILD

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: language, gore

Rated:

Supernatural thrillers have always enthralled me. As a Christian, I believe in the battle that is ever being fought between the forces of good and evil. To see this battle played out correctly in film is one of the great challenges that has been offered to both secular and Christian studios. Bless the Child is one of those rare mediums that vividly paints the darkness and evil of Satan as well as the empowering love and greatness of God. Generally films have a slant... they portray evil but not good, at least not as strongly. Still, I have my reservations.

Maggie O'Connor (Kim Basinger) is a divorcee whose husband has left her due to her inability to have children. One Christmas she encounters a woman on the bus who tells her that the "lost star" has returned... the star that has not been seen since that night in Bethlehem when the Savior Jesus was born. "It means," she confides reverently, "tGod is sending someone special to earth." Writing it off, Maggie returns home... only to find her long lost sister Jenna (Angela Bettis) awaiting her... strung out on drugs and with a baby girl in her arms. She doesn't remember who the child's father is and doesn't particularly care. In fact, she abandons the daughter, Cody, to her sister's care. Through the years Maggie and other people around her begin to notice something different about the child. She has extraordinary perceptions and understanding... a dead bird comes to life in her fingertips... dinner plates spin... complete strangers are placed in awe of her.

Doctors write it off as some form of autism, but the Sisters at the school for gifted children in which Cody (Holliston Coleman) is enrolled believe there is something more spiritual about it. Six years have passed since Cody's birth and strange, demonic activities are taking place on the streets of New York. Children the age of six are vanishing... but only those born on December 16th. A priest-turned-cop, John Travis, is sent in to investigate the crimes. All of the children are found dead with a curious Satanic emblem burned into their arms. It's about this time when Jenna returns with her new husband, Eric Stark, the founder of a world-wide program to help druggies recover. They want Cody. Maggie has been warned by a mysterious young woman not to let them have the child and refuses to grant them visitation rights.

Cody is kidnapped, leaving Maggie to seek Travis' help... before it's too late. He's been studying the pattern and it leads up to a horrifying premise: an Easter-eve ceremony in which Cody will choose life as a servant of Satan... or death for her Savior. There are a lot of things to like about this film. It portrays evil in a bad light, is surprisingly accurate to Biblical passages, talks about Jesus, and gives us some incredibly profound moments... made even more so because they are between a devout Satanist and a little girl with an unshaken belief in God. There are several key scenes I should mention, a few of them seemingly insignificant, others astonishingly relevant. At one point when Eric has 'offered' a homeless man the option to kill himself, Cody walks forward, blows out the match that would be used to set himself on fire, gives him a gentle hug and whispers, 'He hasn't forgotten you.' Another time she encounters a girl suffering from cancer and gives her a hug in passing. We see then an almost instant transformation on the girl's face... she knows she's been given a hug by Someone bigger than a little girl.

The scene which proves the most climatic is when Cody is given a choice between good and evil in a rooftop encounter purposefully reminiscent of Jesus' Temptation in the Wilderness. Eric asks her to either take his hand and accept 'his lord' or trust hers and fall to her death. Turning and giving him an innocent glance, she responds, 'After you.' We see the supernatural forces at work all throughout the film and sense through Cody's reactions that there is more going on around the characters than the audience can even imagine. Demons, in all their hideous, gruesome caliber, are shown lingering in places of darkness. One character even is momentarily morphed in fury. Angels also make appearances in many human forms... as a janitor... a beautiful young woman in the subway... a man on the bridge... and in a dazzling hue of golden-white light toward the climax. One thing which  concerned me was their absence at pivotal moments... when Cody was kidnapped... when those children were taken... when a young woman is run down and murdered in the subway. Perhaps I've become a little too accustomed to Touched by an Angel and my belief that angels are present at times of death, but I feel the director could have gone one step further in showing angels at those traumatic moments in people's lives.

He's not afraid to show evil in all its horrific ugliness, but shies away from angelic beings except at the climax. The film is appealing to many types of people; those who like horror, those who believe in a battle between the forces of good and evil, and those merely seeking a good cult thriller on a Saturday night. Unfortunately, it alienates itself from many Christian families with graphic violence. Language is largely avoided with no abuses of God's name; but two f-words do make their way into the dialogue. It's the gore which will have many people putting on the brakes. While not the kind of graphic violence that sticks with you for a long time, it's all the more disconcerting due to the nature: Satanic killings. Several people are hit by cars and flipped up over the hood to the pavement beyond. At least two people are attacked with baseball bats; when the violence is turned toward a young woman much of it occurs off-screen. Maggie touches a still body only to have the head detach and roll to the floor.

An evil nanny stabs a man in both eyes with her knitting needles. There is also some drug content but it is in no way glamorized. We see many needle pricks on a woman's arm; Cody bursts in on her parents to find Eric shooting up her mother. A young woman is admitted into the hospital after an overdose, complimentary of her friends. There's one sketchy slang term for women and the aforementioned girl wears a sheer black top over a revealing bra. I came away with mixed feelings due to the creepy nature of the film. Bless the Child is certainly respectful toward the church and its beliefs. Most of the characters involved wind up praying for God's help, strength, and mercy. The nuns gather on the night chosen for an evil ceremony and pray a shield of protection over Cody, Maggie, and Travis. Certainly God can use this film to reach out to people since He is the ultimate winner. The ending scene leaves the audience in a memorable silence as they ponder young Cody's future and her fantastic abilities. 

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