Joshua

This film has a quiet power to it and it is not like all the gore and torture porn that has been out there lately making money at the box office. Look, the masses want to be led like a toddler through most movies - lookee here - point A to point B to point C - get it? He's good, he's bad. Wow - watch that head explode. Yawn. I like gore too but I also love intelligent films that leave it to an audience that WANTS to think - that wants to be challenged and has to try and figure out what is true and what isn't. Sam Rockwell, Vera F (as the wife), Dallas Roberst as the uncle and the young kid as Joshua all give excellent performances. This is not a HORROR film in the sense of gore and supernatural crap. This is about a family swirling out of control with post partum depression, work pressure, meddling relatives, a disturbed child and a crying infant - and it is left up to us to decide what really happened. Slow, steady and ultimately, powerful. If you have patience and love well made, intense dramas - JOSHUA is for you.

This is a very strange and unconventional horror/thriller with fantastic performances by Vera Farmiga and Jacob Kogan. Usually kid actors in horror films bug me (I'm lookin' at you, new OMEN kid!), but this little dude totally creeped me out in a Martin Stephens kind of way. It's an excellent performance and one of the best things this offbeat movie has going for it. This movie's plot sounds like typical "Bad Seed" ground, but it twists and turns into really bizarre territory, disorienting the viewer to the point where you have no idea where it's going or where it's been. I'm still not sure if I even liked it, but it did make me feel incredibly uneasy, and I guess that's worth something.

You don't have to be a genius to work out that the plot doesn't sound too dissimilar to "The Omen" or "Orphan", it even has Vera Farmiga playing the mother again for gods sake! But, "Joshua" is no where near as great as "The Omen" or "Orphan". Don't get me wrong, it isn't the worst film I've seen in my life and it does have terrific strengths, but also weaknesses that drag the film down quite a bit.

"Joshua" has its own style, it's much more subtle than "Orphan", in "Orphan" we see Esther kill countless people so it's really in your face that she's evil. The twist isn't subtle either. But "Joshua" doesn't make it clear if it's his wrong doing or not. So "Joshua" sets out to be more classy than "Orphan" but also no where near as fun or entertaining. I did like how it was subtle and a bit of a slow-burner but sometimes the pacing got a bit too slow and at times boring, but always engaging.

The most impressive thing about "Joshua" is it's atmosphere. It builds up a really tense and uncomfortable atmosphere. It's beautifully bleak and awkward in a good way, not awkward in a bad way like "The Idiots". The boy who plays Joshua is also quite creepy. The unresolved ending also adds to the films creepyness.

So if you want a quietly grim and creepy drama with splashes of horror and intellect. "Joshua" is for you. But, I prefer the fun and weirdness of "Orphan".

completely mis-marketed as an Omen-type horror film, there's a lot more going on in this one than in most of the recent similar scary fare. first things first: there's no supernatural hoo-hah. (ah, so refreshing.) it's an unsettling, strangely plausible horror film... seemingly made especially for parents. a few plot elements bothered me, and i felt there was one misstep (involving a Dave Matthews song, btw!), but overall it was an effective chiller. Vera Farmiga as the increasingly imbalanced mother and Celia Weston as the holy-rolling but genuinely concerned mother-in-law are both excellent, and Sam Rockwell delivers another compelling and subtly idiosyncratic performance. George Ratliff, who directed the engrossing and discomfiting 2001 documentary, Hell House, shows promise as a narrative filmmaker.

This is a smart psychological horror film. An upscale NYC couple bring home their new baby and their older child -- a nine-year-old boy prodigy -- starts acting extremely creepy as suspicious accidents and odd behavior increase. Director George Ratliff creeps you out without any significant blood or gore, making this movie a lot more like Rosemary's Baby than, say, The Omen. With a smart script and great performances by everyone, including Sam Rockwell, Vera Farmiga and the kid playing Joshua, the only downside to this movie is a rushed "and-then-it-ends" anti-climax that I found unsatisfying. Still, this is worth a look if you like scary movies.