Review of The New Daughter (2009) by Jason D — 27 May 2010

Now here's a big shocker for me: a PG-13 horror film that DOESN'T such! Gasp! The New Daughter finds estranged father Kevin Coster now divorced and very much present in the lives of his two children (Pan's Labyrinth Ivana Baquero and Gattlin Griffith) whom he takes to their new rural South Carolina home in the middle of nowhere.

Costner is eager to start over and re-build a relationship with his two children, which starts to work with Gattlin, but is failing with hormonal daughter Ivana. Things begin to get a little weird for the family when things start to go bump in the night outside, but that little gem is downplayed when Ivana begins to act very unusual and different.

It also becomes apparent that some strange stuff has happened before at this house to a previous owner's daughter, so when Costner begins to dig deeper and deeper into the problem, bodies start piling up and we now have ourselves a full-blown creature feature! Yay! Those not afraid of a little story structure and plot should appreciate the expanded story throughout.

Sure, it's a bit of a slow-burn, but the payoff in the end is spectacular. Unless you're a retard when it comes to movies, any horror fan should genuinely enjoy this. The New Daughter was shamefully abused by it's production company and reduced to measly dollar theaters (much like Midnight Meat Train and Blood Creek, which were also good horror films).

Little spanish starlet Ivana Baquero does a great job convincing us she's actually an American-born girl. And if I can sound like a pedophile for a moment, she is absolutely gorgeous and will be a stunning women when she gets older! Kudos to Costner for delivering a good performance for once, and an exceptional American directing debut from Luis Berdejo, best known as the writer of REC] which is vastly under-appreciated by lazy Americans.

Today, I'm prepared to eat my words and say there there IS such a thing as a good PG-13 horror, albeit, it's one out of every 1 million that come out.