The Godsend (1980)

Waste of time

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Reading its premise it reminded me immediately of an old favorite of mine "The Bad Seed" and to a minor extent "Bloody Birthday". These movies all have one thing in common, all of them are a devilish child (in Bloody Birthday it's even 3 kids)lacking some kind of conscience and who get a thrill out of killing people. They even get away with those crimes in the beginning, fooling people who are wondering how that could have happened. At some point someone close to them gets suspicious. The motives however are in each case different. Rhoda from The Bad Seed was pretty materialistic. If she thought she deserved or wanted something (being it a prize, an object) she just took it and resorted to killing the person trying to deny it to her. The 3 kids from Bloody Birthday really didn't have a clear motive they just seemed to do it because they could even though people trying to stand in their way were more likely to be victimized. And last but not least there is Godsend Bonnie with angelic blonde hair and face, born from a mysterious woman who disappeared the next morning after giving birth in a home of a household of a couple with 4 children. The couple decides to raise Bonnie as one of their own. Bonnie is still only a baby when she commits her first murder. She doesn't kill for fun nor for material things, but weird enough for love. She wants the love of her parents for her alone. And she tries to get rid of those who she has to share the attention with, being her stepbrothers and sister. The good thing is all her killings are clever and mysterious since all but the last happen of screen. Of course with each loss the parents gets more and more depressed, the mother the most. The father on the other hand tries to find out how it happened and gets really suspicious of Bonnie when a third kid dies. The mother refuses to think bad of her little angel and more and more conflicts happen between the parents something Bonnie handily takes advantage of. The ending is quite open which might be cliché for these type of movies but I like it. Trying to break such a circle won't make it stop as there is a big chance such a circle can begin out of nothing somewhere else again. No matter how much we try there will always be evil to deal with.

I saw this movie about 3 years after it came out, and actually enjoyed it. It moves a bit slow for American viewers, and yes, it is terrifying, especially if you have children. The next few months of my life were made frightening by my 4 year old (at the time). It seems her dad let her watch the movie and she followed me around the house saying "mummy? mummy? I love you, mummy..." in the exact tone and accent as the evil child character. So, if you're into twisted, suspense, and totally scary, this movie is for you. If your into action (ex. XXX), this one is too slow for you. Just don't let the kids watch it. Oh, yeah...it's NOT a happy ending.

The film is basically a complete rip-off of the evil child genre and, to be honest, Omen makes a much better job of it. A young couple, living in an idyllic country setting, are visited by a pregnant woman who gives birth at their house and then disappears mysteriously leaving her baby daughter. A series of "accidental" deaths follows in the household and eventually the parents come to realise that the demonic child is the cause.The film adds nothing to the genre, but it is almost worth watching just for the evil child. After each death, the camera zooms up on her face and she wears an expression of pure evil. Very disturbing. I remember seeing the film when I was 15 and could not forget her face.Apart from that, the Godsend is pretty missable.

"First there was ROSEMARY'S BABY. Then THE OMEN. And now, a tale more suspenseful, more frightening than either... As the snow fell in New York, I took this video out of my video closet. The box looked interesting, with this quote on the back. On the front, there was an upside-down cross with the two eyes peering at me. For an instant, I thought this was going to be an Oscar worthy rip-off. The film started nice enough, opening with pretty views of the English countryside. A family was playing in the meadow, when a stranger came and asked if she could stay. She was pregnant and needed a place to give birth. Well, she gave birth that night and left the next morning. Then in pitiful fashion the baby, now a girl, kills all the "sibling competition". Now, I started wondering about halfway through the film, what was I watching? The girl resembled Drew Barrymore in "Firestarter". It was like: "The Omen"+"Firestarter"+A Daytime Soap all in one. The big killings are done in 30 minutes, the other hour was basically spent with the parents fighting. The father wanted to get rid of her, the mother wanted to keep her. And as if that was bad, the ending was so contrived. It was clear, the movie was over after 30 minutes. The filmmakers desperately needed to end the film. But there was no way to do it. The ending came so abruptly, that I must say seeing those red credits on the screen must have been the scariest part of all. At any rate, avoid this one and rent "The Omen" again!!