The Slow Daughter
Recently divorced author John James (Kevin Costner) has brought a new home near Mercy, South Carolina for him and his children, the teenage Louisa (Ivana Baquero) and son Sam (Gattlin Griffith). It's not easy for John as not only is he suffering from writer's block but Louisa blames him for their mother leaving making it difficult to communicate with her. But things get more troublesome from John when Louisa discovers the house is near to an Indian burial ground and something seems to take possession of her making her even more difficult to get on with until eventually John learns of not only the house's history which involves dead people but has to do battle with what is controlling his daughter.
Before I get to the review of "The New Daughter" I have a really simple question. Why does a single dad with two children want to buy a house probably three times to big for them in a remote location away from everyone and everything? That to me really doesn't make sense and so the minute you question John's unanswered motives for buying the house the movie starts to fall apart as even more unanswered questions arrive.
Of course "The New Daughter" is a horror movie and unanswered questions are to be expected and so to be honest is the deliberately slow placing which won't be to everyone's liking and frankly not mine. It means that director Luiso Berdejo is given plenty of time to build up an ominous air surrounding the house and the nearby burial mound but for me the pedestrian pacing makes it hard to get gripped by especially when the underlying story of a creepy house, strange goings on and a child possessed by something has been done many a time.
The thing is that "The New Daughter" has that feel and look of a European horror movie, from the pacing to the camera work and the laboured dialogue with long pregnant pauses which really is an acquired taste. The annoying thing is that all the elements are there and it features a good performance from Kevin Costner but the styling element is a road block for me.
What this all boils down to is that if you like European style horror movies then "The New Daughter" might be up your street as it has that slow styling. But as I said it does make it laboured for those more use to quicker paced horror movies.
