The kidnap victim from hell

A team of kidnappers, led by Max, whisk away a small boy, David Sandborn, from his wealthy family home and take him to a remote cabin in Maine. All they want is the money; none of them want to harm David in any way, particularly Roxanne, Max's girlfriend, who tries to befriend David. All are perplexed by David's behaviour - far from being terrified, he seems supremely confident and even happy to be with them. Then, one by one, they begin to die - the first of a seemingly innocent heart attack, but as time goes on, it becomes obvious that David has something to do with each of the deaths. Who is David, and what is his influence on them? And will any of them escape with their lives?

Blake Woodruff plays David Sandborn, who is supposed to be perhaps ten years old. Some may recognise Woodruff from Cheaper by the Dozen. I found him really quite annoying in the role. In some ways, I think this is deliberate - we are not supposed to like David after all - but there is a difference between being annoying in a role because it is called for and generally being so annoying that it affects the viewer's enjoyment of the film. In my case, his acting really did put me off the film. He does, I suppose, portray evil, although I felt he was ripping off Damien in The Omen a little too much, and it generally felt as though he was thinking too hard about every evil glance and smirk he gave.

The plot isn't exactly original - evil children have appeared in film before and it has been done much better in films like The Omen and the Japanese film, The Grudge. However, I had no expectations of this film, not having heard of it before I watched it, and in general, I found it entertaining. It was certainly not clear what was going to happen and there is a nice twist towards the end which I enjoyed, although in hindsight, I should have seen it coming. The pacing is great; there really isn't a let-up in the suspense and there is a good start to the film which initially doesn't seem to make sense, but nevertheless intrigues. There are occasionally rather abrupt endings to scenes before switching to another, but it wasn't enough to bother me all that much.

I really enjoyed the soundtrack. One of the recurring pieces of music was a Ukranian Christmas carol, Carol of the Bells, which I recognised and found very haunting - a great match for the film. Then there are a selection of popular Christmas carols, because the kidnap takes place around Christmas, and a couple of familiar songs such as Ring of Fire, the Johnny Cash version, and Midnight at the Oasis, sung by actress Sarah Wayne Callies.

Classification: 15