The Bad Seed

After a strange series of accidents, a single father comes to believe that the incidents centered around his young daughter have more truth to them than expected and begins to suspect that she's far more dangerous to the others around her than he thinks.

This was a decent enough if wholly unnecessary entry. One of the few positive aspects here is the incredibly enjoyable manner in which this one sets up the evil child routine. With the film resting nicely on the idea of her being so coy about her true intentions, the overall idea that emerges here is the creepy, ice-cold demeanor and focused mentality that comes from her complete detachment with her feelings. This is a fine setup later as her manipulative behavior from the start is taken to new heights with her behavior, lying about the various accidents and injuries that she either suffers to engender sympathy or causes to others, including the opening scenes on the school grounds or the strange series of incidents that pile up around her and those around the family that are related to everyone while she continually pulls the wool over everyone in the cause of keeping her secret alive. These here are what hold this up over its main flaws here. The main issue here is the fact that the film plays itself out far more like a thriller than a genuine genre effort, keeping it so focused on whether or not she'll get away with the lies that it never really develops any kind of macabre atmosphere with the way it presents itself. The manipulation attempts and cold, icy demeanor may make her quite a calculating figure but it does nothing to help turn this into a genre feature as that holds the film down to such a bare minimum of sequences that focus on outright terror due to that. The focus on the thriller aspects also causes this to feel way too overlong with the overbearing clinging to him that doesn't do much beyond enhancing what we already knew about her personality so the focus on her being that psychotic doesn't register as scary or creepy in that case. As well, the entire subplot about the nanny who has something to prove by letting her get away with everything is quite problematic and doesn't really serve the film well with her being on the kids' side from the beginning. With a limp finale hamstrung by the inability to do much because of the channel restrictions, this one comes up rather lame in the end.

Rated Unrated/PG-13: Violence, Language and themes of children in danger.

Well worth a look, not far short of being a genuine cinematic release.

The book and play were masterpieces of psychological theories in the 1950s. The studios bowed to the censors when making the film and altered the ending. But this atrocity is beyond reason the worst concept of remaking anything of that era. Even changing her name to EMMA? As Monika stated in the original film's ending, "We still have Rhoda" bites the dust, I recommend everyone avoid this throwaway schlock and read the novel, rent or stream the original film and enjoy the REAL show!

I don't think I've seen the 1956 version of "The Bad Seed", so how much alike or different the 1956 and 2018 version are I have no idea. Regardless, I sat down to watch this 2018 version as directed by Rob Lowe.

And I must say that I was actually enjoying this movie. The story was quite good, sure it was predictable at times and generic at times, but overall it was a good storyline and plot.

And writer Barbara Marshall definitely did a good job in setting the stage, and slowly building up the movie, right up to the final climax. Well, while the ending was predictable and you saw it coming a mile away, it was still an enjoyable ride getting there.

It should be said, though, that actress Mckenna Grace - playing Emma - really carried this movie phenomenally with her performance. For such a young actress, she showed a tremendous amount of talent. And I think she will have a glorious acting career ahead of her if she continues like this.

However, "The Bad Seed" is hardly a movie that warrants more than a single viewing, because the storyline just doesn't have enough contents to it to support more than a single viewing. But worry not, as it is an enjoyable movie and well worth taking the time to sit down to watch.

I am rating this 2018 version of "The Bad Seed" a six out of ten stars. For a TV movie, this was pretty good.

Lifetime is mostly known for their formulaic, made for TV movies, but something about this one is quite refreshing. Maybe it's because they're using known actors and a known director.

Pros: The acting (particularly the performances of McKenna Grace and Rob Lowe), the music, the direction, and the ending.

Cons: A couple of considerable plot holes (how does a little girl remove a wasp's nest and tape it onto someone's backseat without anyone noticing?) Some characters also feel incredibly dumbed down.

I give this film a 7/10.