Bless The Child Review

Bless The Child
After her down-and-out sister leaves her literally holding the baby, Maggie O'Connor begins to notice that there's something different about little Cody. Cue hallucinatory demons, portents of the apocalypse and creepy cult leader Erik Stark.

by Kim Newman |
Published on
Release Date:

05 Jan 2001

Running Time:

108 minutes

Certificate:

15

Original Title:

Bless The Child

A latecomer to the millennial blip, this offers fewer jazzy religious visions than End Of Days or Stigmata, but similarly reverts to the Rosemary's Baby/Exorcist plot as an everyday heroine finds herself at the centre of an epic modern-day struggle between good and evil.

Kim Basinger, raising her literally angelic niece, is targeted by a cult led by nasty Rufus Sewell. After taking a blow to the skull in dramatic circumstances, she is also prone to see CGI demons swirling around evilly. As if that weren't enough, Sewell's chauffeur is a serial killer, and all FBI agent Jimmy Smits has to hand is a succession of strangers who work in mysterious ways. Director Chuck Russell can't get the cast to believe this is more scary than giggly, and that sadly means you won't get much of a frisson, either. There are laughs, though.

Shamelessly silly, Bless The Child notches up the clichés as the daft story meanders towards a suitably hammy conclusion.
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