Review of The New Daughter (2009) by Michele S — 30 May 2010

There's a lot of creepiness and suspense but the story is lacking. The real star of this movie is Ivana Baquero, who plays the daughter. She is great at handing out creepy looks and stoic faces. Kevin Costner plays John James, a recently divorced father settling in a new home with his two children. Unfortunately, they end up moving next to an Indian burial mound. The daughter becomes obsessed with it and slowly becomes distant, threatening and violent. I found myself getting really into this movie but the ending was disappointing. It wasn't necessarily horrible but it's not an ending I preferred.

After I finished the movie, I started really thinking about how the writers decided to play the Indian mound story out. Instead of going a "ghostly" route with Indian spirits terrorizing the daughter and family, they instead decided to go with some sort of living alien-like creature. These alien-like creatures actually live in the mound (burrowed tunnels within it). I'm not going to go into great detail but basically, they decide the daughter is the "chosen" one to mate with. Supposedly, only male Indians were buried there and they are trying to survive by mating. It's all quite silly when I really think about it.

This movie really had a lot of potential. I feel that if the writers would have went with a ghost theme and made this more of a haunting situation, I think it would have made for a great thrill. In the end, I give it a fresh rating because it had plenty of suspense and creep factor. I believe Ivana saved this movie from being a total failure. I suppose you'll either like it or hate it (based on plenty of negative reviews). Enjoy!