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Case 39
In her many years as a social worker, Emily Jenkins believes she has seen it all, until she meets 10-year-old Lilith and the girl's cruel parents. Emily's worst fears are confirmed when the parents try to harm the child, and so Emily assumes custody of Lilith while she looks for a foster family. However, Emily soon finds that dark forces surround the seemingly innocent girl, and the more she tries to protect Lilith, the more horrors she encounters.
2009 · Directed by Christian Alvart · 109 min · Horror · Mystery · Thriller · Screenplay in the scene database · 18 frames
Tagline
Some cases should never be opened.
Plot
Emily is a social worker assigned to investigate the family of 10-year-old Lillith Sullivan, as her grades have declined and an emotional rift with her parents has emerged. Emily suspects that the parents have been abusing and overprotecting Lillith since the day she was born, and proposes to her department to take the child away from her parents' custody. Eventually, Emily's suspicions are confirmed when Lillith's parents try to kill her by roasting her alive in their oven. Emily saves Lillith with the help of Detective Mike Barron.
Lillith is to be sent to a children's home, but she begs Emily to look after her instead. With the board's agreement, Emily is assigned to care for Lillith until a suitable foster family is found. In the meantime, Lillith's parents are placed in a mental institution since they are no longer fit for their parental responsibility for the girl, according to the court.
After Lillith moves in, strange things begin to happen around Emily. Another of Emily's cases, a boy named Diego, murders his parents, and Barron informs Emily that somebody phoned Diego from her house the night before the crime. As she is suspected of involvement in the incident, Lillith undergoes a psychiatric evaluation by Emily's best friend, Dr. Douglas J. Ames. During the session, Lillith turns the evaluation around, asking Douglas what his fears are and subtly threatening him. That night, after receiving a "strange phone call" at his apartment, Douglas is panicked by the sight of a mass of hornets coming out of his body. His panic causes him to fall and break his neck on the toilet, killing him instantly.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Written by: Ray Wright
- Cinematography: Hagen Bogdanski
- Edited by: Mark Goldblatt
- Music: Michl Britsch
- Production design: John Willett
- Produced by: Lisa Bruce, Kevin Misher, Alix Madigan, Scott Thaler
Cast
- Renée Zellweger as Emily Jenkins
- Jodelle Ferland as Lillith Sullivan
- Ian McShane as Detective Mike Barron
- Bradley Cooper as Douglas J. Ames
- Adrian Lester as Wayne
- Kerry O'Malley as Margaret Sullivan
- Callum Keith Rennie as Edward Sullivan
- Cynthia Stevenson as Nancy
- Alexander Conti as Diego
- Philip Cabrita as Javier
Production
- Country: Canada, United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: Paramount Vantage, Misher Films, Anonymous Content, Case 39 Productions
- Budget: $27,000,000
- Box office: $29,000,000
- Themes: child abuse, social worker, detective, office, supernatural, murder, mental institution, cityscape, drawn, falling elevator
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