Case 39

** - I guess hoping for two really good movies from an unknown German writer/director was too much to ask for. Christian Alvarter, the man behind the surprisingly good sci-fi/horror flick “Pandorum” is also responsible for this film that was actually completed in 2006 - well before the much better above-mentioned movie - and not released in theatres until 2009. I chalk at least part of the failure of this film up to the presence of the utterly unlikable star of those shitty “Bridget Jones” movies, Renee Zellweger, also being the star of this. I really can’t stand her. Her voice is a rather bizarre and mind-destroying combination of gruff and shrill, and whenever she raises it to level above normal speaking volume it makes we want to knock her down a stairwell. Unfortunately, she isn’t knocked down a stairwell in this movie and instead plays a rather prominent role throughout, unlike many of the other relative stars who seem to fall one by one to weird misfortunes. They actually aren’t weird misfortunes, but are the result of a 10-year old girl who is really a demon of some sort who haunts and kills people by calling them on their cell phones. Yeah, it didn’t make much sense to me, either. The highlight of this movie (beside the part where you think Zellweger is going to drown) is the acting chops of the young girl in the starring role. She outshines all of the rest of the people in this by being a convincingly creepy demon. It’s still not a very good movie, though, relying on cheap thrills and crummy acting over any sort of substance.