By Melissa Antoinette Garza
One of my favorite types of suspense and horror films are those which focus on killer kids. Whether it be The Children (1980), Children of the Corn (1984), The Bad Seed (1956) or the iconic The Omen (1976), I am always hooked.
I had heard of The Godsend for a very long time, but had never seen it. It was one of those movies that was always on my mind, but for whatever reason I just never got around to it. Finally, my brother Geno grabbed the DVD and we watched it.
The UK production is a topnotch thriller with great child actors and an intensity rarely seen in modern films.
It begins when a pregnant blonde woman shows up at the Marlowe household. Alan (Malcolm Stoddard) and Kate Marlowe (Cye Hayman) welcome the woman into their home where they themselves have four children. Kate helps the mysterious woman give birth and then shortly thereafter the lady disappears leaving her child, Bonnie (Joanne Boorman) behind.
Alan and Kate gladly take her in as one of their own. Bonnie is placed in the crib with their infant. One morning when they go to check on them, their biological child is dead. As Bonnie is only a few months old, they suspect nothing and believe their blonde hair, blue eyed adopted gift is a blessing.
Years pass and Bonnie (Wilhelmina Green) grows older. She runs around and plays with the other kids. On a family trip, their other daughter Lucy (Clarissa Young) gets stuck on a tall mountain. Kate and Alan rush to her aid while the other children play. When they get back, one of their sons is missing. Davy (Lee Gregory) is found dead by Alan.
Kate falls into a deep depression as she begins to get letters accusing her of killing her own children. Alan does everything he can to help her out of it including building her an office to start working again. It helps for a bit, but soon tragedy strikes again.
There other son Sam (Piers Eady) warns Alan that something isn’t right with Bonnie and he fears her. One day Sam sees Alan pushing Bonnie. He swears that she started it and pulled his hair, but as Sam is so much bigger than Bonnie, Alan doesn’t believe it. Not long after, Sam is found dead and Bonnie’s blue ribbon is found next to the corpse.
Though, Kate refuses to believe anything negative about Bonnie, Alan knows something is off with her and he starts to have night visions about her. Things get worse for him, when he is struck with an unknown illness which makes him sterile thus leaving Lucy (Angela Deamer) as his only biological child.
Desperate to keep an eye on Bonnie, he brings the girls to a park and watches their every step. For a moment as Lucy swings and Bonnie
pushes her, he begins to drift off to sleep while sitting against a tree. He opens his eyes to see Bonnie taking another swing and purposely throwing it at Lucy in an effort to kill her.
Now that he knows the truth, he demands that Kate get rid of Bonnie, but she refuses. She thinks he has gone mad and refuses to give up her daughter. Alan first tries to explain to her that Bonnie is like the baby bird who is left in another nest by its mother. It pushes all of the other children out to get the adoptive mother’s full attention. When Kate is unconvinced, he makes a drastic move and leaves with Lucy without telling Kate where they’re staying.
Alan receives a phone call notifying him that Kate fell and is in the hospital. He rushes to her side only to find out prior to becoming sterile he had gotten her pregnant. She lost the baby when she fell on a doll of Bonnie’s left on the stairs.
Kate goes back and forth with the idea that Bonnie could be the cause of all these tragedies, but seemingly always comes to the conclusion that Alan is wrongly blaming Bonnie.
Her refusal causes a huge rift between the two and it seems they are heading to divorce. Meanwhile, he finds out that after she was released from the hospital she sent Bonnie home alone with Lucy.
The conclusion of this film was shocking. The entire film impressed me with the raw and harsh no holds barred approach to showing vicious and cruel acts against children and by children. If this film was remade I think the violence would be toned down which would thus make the movie just another killer-kid film.
Many compare this to The Omen and even say that it ripped the film off. First, The Godsend was based on a book that was released the same year as The Omen and the film adaption follows the novel in nearly every detail and plot point. Secondly, this is far more like The Bad Seed. I don’t think the writer Bernard Taylor stole or copied the classic, but it may have inspired him. We have a cute blonde girl who looks as though she is the most innocent girl in the world yet evil lurks underneath. She was born that way. The plots are similar in certain ways but the tone is far different.
Whereas The Bad Seed was a chilling and dark tale of a mother having to grasp that her child is a murderer, The Godsend follows a father’s desperation to save his remaining child’s life at any cost while trying to convince his wife that their adopted daughter is evil. Comparing the two is like comparing 8MM (1999) to Vacancy (2007). Both are about snuff films but while 8MM is a story about a man trying to get to the bottom of who is making the movies, Vacancy is about a couple desperate to escape becoming the next victims portrayed in the snuff movie. It’s a film that has you on the edge of your seat and after watching it you actually have to calm down. It’s like a roller-coaster ride. The same is true for this movie. Though slower than Vacancy the passion and conviction of Alan brilliantly portrayed by Malcolm Stoddard pumps the audience up and ensures that they’re on the same ride and just as determined and frantic to save Lucy’s life.
I can’t say enough good things about this movie. The acting by all, even the youngest of actors was phenomenal. It’s generally difficult to believe a child is evil, but the actresses who portrayed Bonnie were amazing.
As for the ending, it’s unexpected, shocking and completely fitting for the production. There’s really two endings to the movie. When you watch it, you’ll see what I mean. We not only find out the fate of Kate, Alan, Bonnie and Lucy; but we also find out a little more about the mother at the very end.
I would put this on my must-see movies and as it’s free on YouTube, I’d get on it.
Scared Stiff Rating: 9/10
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