In Bless the Child, a group of Satanists are on the look out for a child born on a specific date who possesses messianic powers. They proceed to kidnap every child born on that date throughout New York City, torture them, and when they prove not to be the one they’re looking for, kill them, branding each with the mark of their cult. This has caused the FBI, led by agent John Travis (Jimmy Smits), to enter into the investigation. John has figured out the link between the kidnapped children, their birthdates, but has otherwise gotten nowhere.
Meanwhile Maggie O’Connor (Kim Basinger) has been raising her niece, Cody (Holliston Coleman), when Cody’s mother, a heroin addict, abandoned her as an infant. Cody has been diagnosed with autism, something Maggie doesn’t quite buy, and has been placed in a special school with nuns trained to deal with these types of special needs children. While there she shows signs of having special powers including the power to heal the injured. Shortly afterward, Jenna (Angela Bettis), Cody’s mother, reappears with a new husband, Eric Stark (Rufus Sewell), to take Cody back after all these years. But Maggie suspects Eric of having sinister motives and refuses to hand Cody over, only to have Eric kidnap Cody anyway.
To say that Bless the Child is a mess would be an understatement. This film tries hard to pair the central premise to that of King Herod’s response to the news of the birth of the Messiah and how he responded to that news. The problem here is that it gives lip service to that parallel but nothing more. Herod killed every child that fit the description of the Messiah in a vain attempt to keep Jesus from coming. Here, we get reference to kidnapped children but only see one child actually disposed of and the cultist seemed more interested in narrowing things down to finding a specific child rather than just eliminating all of them that meet the criteria. It’s a lousy strategy that seems destined to fail.
Once it becomes obvious who is the head of this Satanic Cult, then the justice system becomes the real enemy as Maggie finds herself battling the realities of the judicial process. She knows Erik kidnapped Cody yet the police and the feds cannot really do anything. It’s mentioned that Erik has a lot of properties and could be at any of them but this is just a poor attempt to add drama and extend the runtime of a film that’s already threadbare. As is the inclusion of Cheri (Christina Ricci) as an addict, former member of the cult, who shows up at the hospital Maggie works at and can spout exposition about what the cult is up to. It’s a thankless role with only one possible outcome but Christina Ricci does a credible job with so little to work with. Her final scene comes close to being truly chilling, right up to the point where CGI flying demons turn it from scary to laughably bad.
Introducing legitimate supernatural elements into the film was a bad idea. These types of films work best when the evil is purely human, people who think they are serving Satan but are really just serving their own selfish desires. Once winged demons and Christ-like miracles enter the picture this film goes from dark and creepy to just plain silly. A better director might have been able to pull this off but not Chuck Russell who is mostly known for schlocky horror and action films. An early scene at the special school shows Cody healing a bird that flew into a window and broke its neck. When she releases the now healed bird it’s filmed like a flower child releasing a dove to symbolize peace. Tim Burton used this same shot in Mars Attacks!, using it for broad comedy and embracing the cliché. Chuck Russell tries to play it straight and it just doesn’t work on that level. Likewise, much later in the film, there is a scene involving a young person with cancer that is supposed to tug at our heartstrings but it’s over telegraphed and feels shoehorned in.
This is a clumsily written film that makes too many odd choices on its race to the conclusion. The worst of these is the decision to include generic, poorly CGI’d winged demons as part of the antagonists. Even worse is to resolve things so unsatisfactorily, introducing divine intervention into the final act, depicted by a group of praying nuns and balls of light appearing to save the day. It’s among the worst example of Deus ex Machina in recent cinema. If that’s all it took to save Cody from the grips of the cultists then there was no real danger to her in the first place. It’s a disappointing resolution and undermines all of the drama leading up to the finale.
This film doesn’t have much to make it recommendable. The acting is hokey, the villains generic. We know what the Satanists want but none of them, not even Erik, are given a character at all. They’re evil for evil’s sake, nothing more. As a cultist movie this is far from the worst of the lot. It’s not outright terrible and incompetent. Its biggest sin is being bland. It tries to alleviate this by introducing actual demons into the mix but fails miserably at that. When one of the cultists morphs into an actual monster it’s not scary at all, just dumbfounding. This movie is not scary enough to be good horror and not cheesy enough to be a good B movie. What that ultimately makes it then is just plain forgettable.
Release Date: August 11, 2000
Running Time: 107 Minutes
Rated R
Starring: Kim Basinger, Jimmy Smits, Rufus Sewell, Ian Holm, Angela Bettis, Holliston Coleman and Christina Ricci
Directed By: Chuck Russell
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