Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on January 2011

The New Daughter: ©2009 Gold Circle Films LLC. All Rights Reserved

What? Is the overwrought horror-thriller some kind of station of the cross for declining movie stars? A newly single father (Kevin Costner) for no discernable reason moves his two kids to a big old house in the country. Mainly I guess because that’s where movies like this happen. Daughter (Ivana Baquero—Pan’s Labyrinth) discovers an Indian funeral mound and falls under the sway of evil spirits therein (and generates an uncomfortable psychosexual vibe, which goes undeveloped). Things go bump, fog slithers, housecats are butchered, there’s these snarling beasties in the woods, and cue the thunderclaps.