After his wife leaves him for another man, struggling author John James (Kevin Costner) relocates to a new house in rural South Carolina with his young son Sam (Gattlin Griffith) and teenage daughter Louisa "Lou" (Ivana Baquero) the latter of whom harbors feelings of resentment towards John for his inability to keep their family together. As the three adjust to their new home which has a mysterious burial mound located on the property, Louisa soon begins to exhibit personality changes that although initially seeming like adolescent angst may in fact be of a far more sinister and supernatural nature.
The New Daughter is a 2009 horror film adapted from John Connolly's 2004 short story of the same name first published in the collection Nocturnes. The rights to Connolly's story were purchased by Gold Circle Films who previously scored two modestly budgeted horror hits with White Noise and The Haunting in Connecticut. Initially intended to be a release by New Line, the film ultimately ended up being released by Anchor Bay where it was given a token limited theatrical run before being released to video a few months later. Critical reception tended to run negative with some praise going to the cast and underlying themes while lamenting the plethora of cliches used in the film. In many ways The New Daughter is an improvement on Gold Circles prior horror films like White Noise and Haunting in Connecticut, but it's also weighed down by many of the mid 2000s conveyor belt horror tropes that keep it firmly in the realm of mediocre rental shelf fodder.
Despite the many issues surrounding The New Daughter, the cast is honestly really solid with Costner well positioned to play an in over his head father whose relationship suffers a schism with his daughter Louisa who is on the cusp of pubescence. This is where there is a rich emotional core at play in the material because many parents often do find themselves in a state of upheaval when they're children stop being "children" and their personalities almost change seemingly overnight with a lot of anger and resentment often coloring that relationship. Ivana Baquero does very well as Lou and despite her often butting heads with John even in the opening the movie does give her some moments particularly with her younger brother Sam where she confides in him that it's not John's fault their mother left them. Honestly the stuff with the James family is very rich and very interesting and I often wanted to focus more on it than the actual horror material.
Luiso Berdejo who previously worked as a screenwriter, notably on the hit Spanish horror film REC, makes his directorial debut with the new daughter and he shows himself as having a strong eye for mood and atmosphere with some good nighttime photography of the house as well as nice framing of shots in the daylight scenes that still create an uncomfortable mood. The actual incorporation of the horror elements however is where we see cracks begin to develop because the movie rather than being more psychological concocts this very elaborate mythology involving burial mounds along with foreshadowing of ants and a lot of this stuff feels like it does a disservice to the core upon which the movie had a pretty promising foundation. As the movie goes on it veers more towards becoming a monster movie with some pretty goofy looking monsters and when the ending comes around it leaves on a sour note that just sees the whole thing fall apart.
The New Daughter has some really good ideas and performances on display, but there's also a lot of missteps especially when it comes to the handling of broken family dynamics with more conventional horror tropes. I honestly liked it better than prior PG-13 Gold Circle horror films like White Noise or Haunting in Connecticut, but it still carries many of the same flaws as those movies only with some good underlying ideas trying to get out.
