Studio Cut

CASE 39 tells a chilling story in which a woman, whose job is to save broken families, taking a leap to foster a young girl in desperate need. But Emily Jenkins (played by Renee Zellweger) is about to discover that becoming a parent overnight isn’t so easy. It’s a job that dredges up her deepest fears – fear of failure, fear of not understanding, and fear of completely losing control.

Those fears are unnerving enough, but there is another kind of fear that Emily’s foster child Lillith (played by Jodelle Ferland) unleashes into her life and the lives of those around her – a fear found only in the deepest, darkest, most forbidden corners of the subconscious imagination. It’s a fear so tenacious in its grip, it can be fatal.

On the surface, Emily Jenkins’ new foster child is an innocent 10-year-old victim of unspeakable family abuse. The pretty, quiet Lillith is a lonely, haunted child in desperate need of real family love and devoted care. But her appearance doesn’t tell the whole story, and there is far more to this child than first meets the eye. Lillith joins the pantheon of eerie child characters from such films as THE BAD SEED, THE OMEN, THE SHINING and JOSHUA.

When casting Lillith, the filmmakers knew they needed a young actress who possessed unusual depth and skill. They needed someone who could portray a young girl capable of invoking both empathy and abject horror, an actor who could represent the dichotomy of childhood purity and unbridled evil. They looked for an actress who would be so believable in the role that she would shock audiences with her transformation between innocence and demonic fury.  An extensive search led them to Jodelle Ferland, whose impressive resume includes the lead role in Terry Gilliam’s TIDELAND, as well as the hit horror film SILENT HILL. An actress for as long as she can remember, Ferland won her first Emmy at the astonishing age of four.

Alvart continues:  “In a lot of movies that have scary kids, the kids just sort of pop up now and then, but they’re really not part of the story. In CASE 39, Jodelle is really the main character after Renee. We used very little CGI with her, and we didn’t have to because her acting alone is so scary.”

Renee Zellweger was equally blown away by her young co-star. “There’s really nothing that is 12 years old about Jodelle,” she laughs.  “She’s a beautiful soul, a beautiful person and, at the same time, she was able to really scare me. If she wants to charm you, no problem.  If she needs to frighten you, she can.  She is so bright and perceptive; she was able to do amazing things with Lillith.”

“I like doing scary movies,” Ferland admits.  “It’s interesting to be a cute little girl and then suddenly become creepy, because that makes things even more scary.  Lily is in some ways just an innocent little girl, but she can’t help but bring evil with her.  The more people get to know her, the more weird things happen – very, very weird things.”

CASE 39 is released and distributed by United International Pictures thru Solar Entertainment Corp. In Cinemas 03 February 2010 (Wednesday)
MTRCB Rating: R-18