The Bad Seed

Most people like the original movie adaptation because the ending is more satisfying. This movie and the stage play is truer to the novel. The ending is irritating.

I'm pleased that Lowe changed the parental gender and a few other things. Otherwise, why bother?

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

It had a good start. But then it turned into a lousy lifetime movie. Watch the 1956 original instead! It had so much more depth and feeling. This one started out with some depth but got shallower and shallower. Soon enough it was like you are watching a puddle. I couldn't wait for it to end. It was really an unpleasant movie to watch. The entire time, I mentally compared it to the original and wished I was watching that one instead. Emma and the acting wasn't too bad. But the dramatic scenes of Chloe in the garage just didn't match the horror of Henry Jones. The distraught mother in 1956 held a lot more emotion. The best part was when Patty McCormack said her couple of gem lines. The ending was a little different but nothing to wow you. If given a choice watch the original.

This thriller/horror is one good one. It does not amount to the original in the 1950s but this one is all by it self. Emma is a girl who knows what she wants and shows the true signs of a psychopath. The creepy music, the acting, and the feeling of always being on your toes help with this movie. The gore is very low and the lack of emotions is very high. I suggest watching the bad seed if you haven't already done so

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.