Review: Case 39

Review: Case 39.

Director: Christian Alvart
Writer: Ray Wright

Case 39 is a psychological thriller in the horror genre and it was released in March 2009, although it was originally created 4 years before its release date. This movie is based on a social worker – Emily whose boss gives her the case (39) to work on. This case was about a girl being abused by her parents; they continue attempting to kill her. Little did Emily know, Lily was some sort of devil incarnate. 


Most if not all horror films include death. This movie follows most conventions of the horror genre, such as the use of blood, darkness, it’s based in houses and people of course, die.  It also follows the conventions of a psychological horror movie as it includes flashbacks, the killer looks like a normal human being, the setting creates verisimilitude, and it includes contrapuntal sounds. An example would be when Lily is laughing when her parents are about to get killed.  The scene which got me hooked the most was when her parents were trying to burn her in the oven and Emily came and rescued her. This created a climax and we as the audience wanted to know why her parents hate an innocent girl so much. This allows us to be an active audience, which I presume was the director’s and illustrator’s intention.

The movie closely looks at how a person's everyday and normal life can be disrupted by something, in this case it is a child. Maybe it was trying to show that all children are somewhat a type of devil; this could mean that they are hard to look after and naughty. But this view is contradicted in the film as Lily makes it look like the other children in her counselling class are being naughty but is then caught out whispering devilish thoughts to another girl and boy who ends up in the hospital possessed, just like her mother.

The movie also represents a lot of stereotypes, such as indirectly saying that people who have blonde hair are dumb, as when the parents were trying to tell Emily that Lily is not really who she seems she is, Emily didn't listen and instead took on their wrath, as the devil was feeding off her love. Another stereotype is of men being 'macho' and strong. This is connoted when both of Emily's male friends plotted to kill Lily, but she ended up killing them before anyway which also conforms to the stereotype that men are more stupid than women, as they should have known that Lily would try and kill them.

Overall, I would rate this film 3.8 out of 5 as it followed the basic narrative of a devil possessing other people.