Review of Joshua (2006) by Lucy M — 07 Feb 2011

There are few genres of movie more overplayed and often poorly written than the "demon child" style horror/thriller. I didn't expect any revelations after watching this movie (partially because I saw it to feed my Sam Rockwell habit, not for the plot) but I ended up being pleasantly surprised.

Sam Rockwell was brilliant in this movie. Another actor in his position would have had a hard time portraying the frustration, inner turmoil and eventual loss of restraint to the same level of intensity.

On top of that, the demon child himself in this movie wasn't entirely unconvincing - he plays a good disturbed kid. Still, surpassing my expectations still isn't saying much. It dragged at points, the mother wasn't relatable and was, quite frankly, obnoxious.

I kept thinking "please let some series of events remove this psychotic ***** from the rest of the film" and thankfully I eventually got my wish. It's eerie, frustrating, and not crap like other movies of this type.

That's worth 3 stars.