Rating: C-
Dir: Zach Lipovsky, Adam B. Stein
Star: Lexy Kolker, Emile Hirsch, Bruce Dern, Grace Park
Ok, who else was half hoping for a remake of Tod Browning’s infamous 1932 movie of the same name? Sadly, what we get here instead sits somewhere between Firestarter and X-Men: First Class. It takes place at at indeterminate point in the future, when Henry Lewis (Hirsch) has brought up seven-year-old daughter Chloe (Kolker) in their house for her entire life, strictly forbidding her to go outside. Their mother is not around, but there’s something clearly not normal here, between Henry’s tendency to bleed from his eyes, or the mysterious spectral woman who occasionally pops up in Chloe’s closet. The threat from which Henry is protecting his daughter is also initially vague to an almost irritating degree.
Eventually, of course, Chloe sneaks out to get ice-cream from “Mr. Snowcone” (Dern), and the true nature of things gradually becomes apparent. Certain people have supernatural talents, passed down genetically: for instance, Henry can slow down time in a bubble around him, with the seven years of Chloe’s physical age, actually only being a few months. Due to problems caused by these “abnormals”, they are hunted by the government, and when captured, get sent to an underground facility called Madoc Mountain. The woman in the closet is Chloe’s mother, who is one of the prisoners there. Quite how she appears in the cupboard is also annoyingly unclear. It’s not her talent, and nor is it Chloe’s; the young girl can compel people to obey her, even to the point of suicide, making her especially dangerous.
Things from here likely proceed as you can predict, if you’ve seen either of the movies mentioned above. The evil government forces eventually show up, in particular Agent Cecilia Ray (Park) of the clumsily-named Abnormal Defense Force. Henry turns to the neighbours for help, only for them to betray him. Then there’s a scheme which sees Chloe somehow project her essence into Madoc Mountain to help her mother escape. Wait, what? Because for far too much of the film, it feels like the audience is basically being treated like the seven-year-old, with everyone except Chloe clearly in possession of much more information than the viewer. This may be because there are significant elements which don’t stand up to scrutiny.
For example, if you were trying to keep a child out of sight, why not – oh, I dunno – move to the countryside, rather than living in a big city? In addition, the “abnormals” have caused so much carnage, chaos and destruction by the end, you may be forced to concede the government might be justified in rounding them all up. It’s a shame, since Kolker’s performance is amazing, feeling well beyond her years (she genuinely turned eight during production). We’re talking peak Fanning here (Dakota or Elle). But the further into this we go, the more flawed all the other elements seem to be. Though there are cool moments, such as those demonstrating Henry’s ability, the whole thing simply fails to hold up.