Case 39

Case 39
Promotional poster
Directed by	Christian Alvart
Produced by	Lisa Bruce Steve Golin Alix Madigan Kevin Misher
Written by	Ray Wright
Starring	Renée Zellweger Jodelle Ferland Ian McShane Bradley Cooper
Music by	Michl Britsch
Cinematography	Hagen Bodanski
Editing by	Mark Goldblatt
Studio	Paramount Vantage
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	August 13, 2009 (2009-08-13) (New Zealand) October 1, 2010 (2010-10-01) (United States)
Running time	109 minutes
Country	United States Canada
Language	English
Budget	$27 million
Box office	$28,189,979

Case 39 is a 2009 American horror film directed by Christian Alvart and starring Renée Zellweger, Bradley Cooper, and Ian McShane. The film was shot in Vancouver in late 2006 and was released theatrically in the UK, European and Latin American countries on August 13, 2009. The film was initially scheduled for America release in August 2008, but was delayed twice before its final release date on October 1, 2010.

Plot

Social worker Emily Jenkins (Renée Zellweger) is assigned to investigate the family of ten year-old Lily Sullivan (Jodelle Ferland), as her grades have declined and an emotional rift with her parents has emerged. Emily suspects that the parents have been mistreating Lily, and proposes to her department to take the child away from her parents' custody. Emily's fears are confirmed when Lily's parents try to kill her by roasting her in the oven at their home. Emily saves Lily with the help of Detective Mike Barron (Ian McShane). Lily is originally sent to a children's home, but she begs Emily to look after her instead. With the agreement of the board, Emily is assigned to take care of Lili until a suitable foster family comes along. In the meantime, Lily's parents, Edward and Margaret (Callum Keith Rennie and Kerry O'Malley), are placed in a mental institution.

Not too long after Lily moves in, strange things begin to happen around Emily. Two weeks later, another of Emily's cases, a boy named Diego (Alexander Conti), suddenly murders his parents, and Barron informs Emily that somebody phoned Diego from her house the night before the crime. As she is suspected of involvement in the incident, Lili undergoes a psychiatric evaluation by Emily's best friend, Douglas J. Ames (Bradley Cooper). During the session, however, Lily turns the evaluation around, asking Douglas what his fears are and subtly threatening him. That night while studying he receives a strange phone call in his apartment, Douglas is panicked by the sight of a mass of hornets coming out of his body and kills himself in his bathroom by snapping his own neck.

Emily gradually becomes fearful of having Lily in her home, so she heads to the mental asylum for answers from Lily's parents. They tell her that Lily is a demon who feeds on feelings, and that they tried to kill her in an attempt to save themselves. Lily's father tells Emily that the only way to kill Lilith is to get her to sleep. Shortly after Emily leaves the asylum, both parents die in unusual circumstances. Lily's mother is fatally burnt and her father is stabbed in the eye with a fork after attacking a fellow inmate through whom the voice of Lili spoke. Barron initially thinks Emily should seek psychiatric help, but is later convinced when he receives a strange phone call in his home from Emily's cellphone, which is being used by Lili. He arms himself at the police precinct to aid Emily in handling Lily. However, he inadvertently shoots himself in the head with a shotgun when Lily makes him imagine he is being attacked by dogs. After realizing all her closest colleagues have been eliminated, this prompts Emily to serve Lily tea spiked with sedative. While Lily is asleep, Emily sets fire to her house, hoping to get rid of her. However, the girl escapes unharmed.

A police officer escorts Emily and Lily to a temporary place to sleep. As Emily is following the police cars, she suddenly takes a different route and drives her car at a high speed, hoping to bring fear to Lily. Instead, Lily forces Emily to relive her childhood memory of her mother driving fast in a rainstorm. Emily fights through the memory, telling herself that it is not real. The image fades, and Emily mockingly asks Lilith if she is afraid. Lili appears scared by the fact that Emily was able to keep her wits through one of her illusions. Emily then drives the car off a pier. As the car sinks, Emily struggles to lock Lily (now in demon form) in the trunk by folding the rear seats against her. Emily is then able to open her door and attempts to swim to the surface. However, a huge fist of the demon punches a hole through the car's left tail light and grabs Emily's leg. Emily struggles and eventually breaks free as a trapped Lilith sinks to the bottom of the water. Emily climbs atop the pier and attempts to recover from this nightmare of an ordeal.

Cast

• Renée Zellweger as Emily Jenkins
• Jodelle Ferland as Lilith "Lily" Sullivan
• Ian McShane as Detective Mike Barron
• Bradley Cooper as Douglas J. Ames
• Callum Keith Rennie as Edward Sullivan
• Kerry O'Malley as Margaret Sullivan
• Adrian Lester as Wayne
• Georgia Craig as Denise
• Cynthia Stevenson as Nancy
• Alexander Conti as Diego

Production

On October 31, 2006, a fire started on the film's set in Vancouver. None of the cast were on the set at the time and nobody was seriously injured, though the set and studio were destroyed.

Release

The film had many planned release dates, since it first began production back in 2006. Its initial planned US release was February 8, 2008, which was changed to February 22, 2008. It was then moved to August 22, 2008, and then moved again to April 10, 2009. Then it got pushed back to a January 1, 2010, and even further when the official US release date was confirmed to be October 1, 2010.

Its release has also been bumped many times in Australia, but was settling for an August 20, 2009 date, with promotional posters being seen in cinema foyers, but the release date was changed yet again, to November 5, and an official Australian website has been produced to promote the film. A Mexican opening date has been set for December 4, 2009.

In the UK, the film was originally scheduled for release in April 2009, before being rescheduled to September 4, then September 25, 2009, and then December 11, 2009, where it was trailed in cinemas as part of the multi-film distributors' 'Autumn Cinema' advertising campaign. It was finally released on March 5, 2010.

Box office

Case 39 was released to New Zealand cinemas on August 13, 2009 and in its opening weekend was ranked #12 with $35,056. Averaging $1,845 at the 19 cinemas it was released, the film failed to garner attendance. The film opened at a small wide release in Australia, being shown on 85 screens. The film ranked #12 in its opening weekend with a screen average of $2,077 for a gross of $176,526. Extremely negative local reviews and a poor opening were followed by a 70% second weekend decrease. The film grossed a total of $AUD332,956. The film has grossed a total of $14,926,149 from its international run ahead of its U.S. release.

In its debut weekend in the United States, the film opened at #7 with an estimated $5,350,000 in 2,211 theaters, averaging $2,420 per cinema.

Critical reception

The film has received mostly negative reviews and currently holds a 23% 'Rotten' rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 69 critic reviews, with the consensus stating "Director Christian Alvert has a certain stylish flair, but it's wasted on Case 39's frightless, unoriginal plot." Gareth Jones of Dread Central gave the film 2 out of 5 knives, saying, "I'm sure it will do decent business among the undemanding weekend-horror crowd and Zellweger fans when it eventually sees the light of day. Nobody else need apply." Margaret Pomeranz of the Australian version of At the Movies gave the film one out of 5 stars, calling it "one of the least scary, dumbest movies I’ve seen in a long time." Co-host David Stratton gave it 1½ out of 5, commenting that "once it sort of kicks into the plot – once it really gets down to the nitty gritty, like so many horror films it just becomes really ridiculous and silly."

External links

• Official website
• Case 39 at the Internet Movie Database
• Case 39 at AllRovi
• Case 39 at Box Office Mojo
• Case 39 at Rotten Tomatoes
• Case 39 full production notes