(and wholly unnecessary) digital effects. As anyone who saw Silent Hill can attest, Ferland is capable of quiet, creepy menace; unfortunately, the film over- stays its welcome and Lilith’s actions never live up to her promised threats. Whether or not you want to add Case 39 to your
workload depends on how much love you bear for those maniacal munchkins.
STACIE PONDER
SHOULDA RAISED THE... STAKES
30 DAYS OF NIGHT: DARK DAYS Starring Kiele Sanchez, Mia Kirshner and Rhys Coiro
Directed by Ben Ketai Written by Ben Ketai and Steve Niles Sony
Resident Evil: Afterlife: The zombie-Matrix reloaded.
cramped corridors of the prison, where it just doesn’t work. Ultimately, Afterlife is nothing more than a string
of cool action sequences backed by a pulsating techno soundtrack, but, of course, deep storylines and serious character arcs aren’t why we go to see zombie movies. So pass the popcorn and release the inside-out hounds!
LAST CHANCE LANCE A BAD SEED FINALLY SPROUTS
CASE 39 Starring Renée Zellweger, Jodelle Ferland and Ian McShane Directed by Christian Alvart Written by Ray Wright Paramount
Case 39 began production back in 2006,
and after years of shuffling and reschedul- ing has finally been unleashed upon a world that finds itself indifferent at best. In the minds of audiences, a long-delayed release date indicates trepidation on the part of the studio, which usually means the movie sucks (though there are exceptions, such as the excellent, but still unreleased 2006 slasher All the Boys Love Mandy Lane). Renée Zellweger stars as Emily Jenkins, a social worker with a conscience as large as the stack of
files on her desk. She becomes particularly en- grossed in case #39, which concerns Lilith (Jodelle Ferland), a sweet and shy ten-year-old whose parents have promised to “send her to hell.” If this was a made-for-women’s-television movie, then it would be about Emily rescuing the girl and fighting the court system for cus- tody so Lilith could become the daughter she never knew she wanted. But Case 39 is a hor- ror movie, so Emily rescues the girl only to discover – too late – that Lilith’s parents wanted to kill her in order to save them- selves... from her. Deadwood’s Ian McShane joins the fun as a detective trying to get to the bottom of things. The movie doesn’t particu-
larly tread any new ground in the “killer kid” subgenre, al- though the first half is an es- pecially enjoyable slow burn along the lines of Joshua (2007) or any number of late- 1970s flicks such as The Omen or The Haunting of Julia. The simplistic approach and directorial restraint shown early on devolve a bit as
Lilith’s nature is revealed, and director Christian Al- vart (Pandorum, Antibodies) engages in some dodgy
Fact: The only thing more abundant than horror
movie sequels are straight-to-DVD horror movies. Fact: The only thing more abundant than straight- to-DVD horror movies are vampire movies. Fact: The only thing more abundant than vampire movies are molecules. So, here we are with 30 Days of Night: Dark Days, a straight-to-DVD vampire movie sequel, just taunting us to care about it.
Yikes, that crap-ass cover
certainly ain’t doing the job. (How did the designer make that photo look like a pencil crayon drawing anyhow?!?) Nope, we’re here because this is the sequel to 30 Days of Night, the theatrical blood- sucker flick by David Slade (Hard Candy and, sadly, the last
Twilight movie), based on the mega-popular graphic novel of the same name by Steve Niles and Ben Tem- plesmith. Dark Days roughly follows Niles’ sequel, in which
Eben Oleson’s widow, Stella (this time played by Kiele Sanchez instead of Melissa George) – who watched her turned husband burn up at sunrise at the end of the last film – goes to LA to hunt the vamps that destroyed her Alaskan town. She meets up with others harbouring similar vendettas, includ- ing a vamp with a hate-on for his own kind. In this version of the tale, however, the emphasis is placed on a Queen vampire (Mia Kirshner: The Vampire Di- aries, TV’s 24) who’s chartering a boat full of blood- suckers to take out another northern town.
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