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Review: Emelie (2015), a Rare Example of Great Child Acting

Emelie (2015) review

&NewLine;<h4 class&equals;"wp-block-heading"><em>Though horror and thriller movies about children usually fall flat&comma; Emelie excels by allowing the child actors to react to situations as they would in real life&period;<&sol;em><&sol;h4>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>I can say without a shred of remorse that I do not like child actors&period; As an avid horror fan&comma; it’s a constant struggle to find great horror films that don’t center on children&period; After all&comma; children are perceived as weak&comma; innocent&comma; and vulnerable&period; This means that it is easy to design horror stories in which children are endangered by some threat or evil entity&period; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;2018&sol;07&sol;20&sol;review-the-babadook-2014&sol;"><em>The Babadook<&sol;em> &lpar;2014&rpar;<&sol;a> and <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;2020&sol;08&sol;30&sol;review-the-noonday-witch-2016&sol;"><em>The Noonday Witch<&sol;em> &lpar;2016&rpar;<&sol;a> are two prime examples of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;children’s horror” done right&semi; each story focuses on a mother’s attempts to keep her child safe&period; However&comma; the vast majority of child-centric horror falls flat&period; Fortunately&comma; Michael Thelin’s <em>Emelie<&sol;em> &lpar;2015&rpar; strays far from the pack by allowing for transgression and providing a superb cast of child actors&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"wp-block-heading"><em>Emelie<&sol;em> &lpar;2015&rpar; Plot Summary<&sol;h2>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In the film&comma; we see a teenage girl named Anna kidnapped by a man and a woman&period; The woman&comma; Emelie &lpar;Sarah Bolger&rpar;&comma; pretends to be Anna&comma; who had been on her way to babysit for a nearby family&period; The parents&comma; Dan and Joyce&comma; had never met Anna before&comma; so Emelie is able to slip into their home and pretend to be Anna without any problems&period; The couple are on their way out to celebrate their 13th-wedding anniversary&comma; so they’re just happy to have someone take care of their three children — 4-year-old Christopher &lpar;Thomas Bair&rpar;&comma; 9-year-old Sally &lpar;Carly Adams&rpar;&comma; and 11-year-old Jacob &lpar;Joshua Rush&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>As soon as the parents leave&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Anna” starts acting strangely&period; She disconnects the internet and takes all of the laces from the children’s shoes&period; Later&comma; the fake Anna discovers that she’s on her period&comma; so she asks Jacob to unwrap a tampon for her&period; She then inserts the tampon while Jacob watches before flushing the blood down the toilet&period;  <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Soon after&comma; Jacob rummages through her bag and finds an ID proving that she is not the real Anna&period; When he returns to the living room&comma; he is horrified to discover that Emelie is showing Christopher and Sally a sex tape of their parents&period; He quickly turns it off&period; Emelie smugly emasculates him before turning her attention to something else&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>As Jacob starts to discover that Emelie is a danger to his family&comma; he tries to reach out for help&period; Meanwhile&comma; a friend of the real Anna suspects that something is amiss&period; However&comma; Emelie has other plans&period; As the night wears on&comma; Jacob must fight to keep his family safe and get rid of their psychopathic babysitter&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h3 class&equals;"wp-block-heading">My Analysis<&sol;h3>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<div class&equals;"wp-block-image"><figure class&equals;"aligncenter size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;04&sol;13476&lowbar;4-1024x508&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Emelie sex tape scene" class&equals;"wp-image-2242"&sol;><figcaption><em>Emelie<&sol;em> &lpar;2015&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure><&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Once the audience discovers Emelie’s true intentions&comma; the film returns to pretty familiar territory&period; It becomes a race against time until the parents return home&comma; pitting the cunning Emelie against three young kids&comma; all of them ill-equipped to deal with an existential threat&period; As a result&comma; <em>Emelie<&sol;em> is a very effective horror-thriller that leaves you on the edge of your seat&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Though the final act doesn’t take any big risks or defy expectations&comma; there are two distinct characteristics that put <em>Emelie<&sol;em> a step above the rest&period; First and foremost&comma; all three children give great performances&period; In most horror films&comma; child actors immediately draw me out of the story&period; More often than not&comma; they simply don’t have the acting chops to get into their characters&period; Thankfully&comma; Michael Thelin clearly knows how to direct kids effectively&period; Additionally&comma; scriptwriters Richard Raymond and Harry Herbeck don’t try to overburden any of the child actors with too much dialogue&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Instead&comma; Thelin allows the kids to react to their environment with a sense of honesty&period; They weren’t so much &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;performing” as they were reacting to Emelie’s odd behavior&period; As a result&comma; you don&&num;8217&semi;t feel drawn out of the story due to poorly delivered lines or overacting on the part of the children&period; Of course&comma; all of the credit can’t just go to the director and scriptwriters&period; The children all do an excellent job in their respective roles&period; While Thomas Bair is still too young to evaluate as an actor&comma; I predict great careers for both Joshua Rush and Carly Adams&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The film also excels due to its willingness to venture into territory that most &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;mainstream” horror films would avoid at all costs&period; More specifically&comma; we &lpar;as viewers&rpar; feel horrified at Emelie’s willingness to show her personal bodily functions to Jacob&period; It becomes even more disturbing when she breaks out the sex tapes&period; While these are not her only signs of malevolence&comma; they certainly put a pit in your stomach more than the others&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>This is part of the reason why the first half of the film feels so well-executed&period; Emelie is brazenly lying to this family and endangering the children&comma; with absolutely no consequences or authority figures to call her out&period; It’s pure horror that comes in a very different package&period; The monster has free reign to do whatever she pleases — and it’s absolutely terrifying&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"wp-block-heading">Conclusion<&sol;h2>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;psychotic babysitter” subgenre is nothing new&comma; but <em>Emelie<&sol;em> &lpar;2015&rpar; certainly gives it a fresh coat of paint&period; In fact&comma; I would say it is the best in an otherwise middling section of the horror film genre&period; I don’t throw around the word &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;best” lightly&comma; so&comma; if you have the chance&comma; <em>Emelie<&sol;em> is certainly worth a watch&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>That said&comma; the film may turn off some viewers&comma; as it goes out of its way to be transgressive&period; For me&comma; this was one of the elements that allow the film to shine&period; Emelie’s character is so transgressive that&comma; when juxtaposed with the believably naive children&comma; it creates an incredible sense of tension that persists until the final act&period; That said&comma; <em>Emelie<&sol;em> is not without its imperfections&period; Like most horror films&comma; it devolves into horror cliches before it’s all said and done&period; Nonetheless&comma; I still found it to be a highly entertaining and intense horror film — from start to finish&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h3 class&equals;"wp-block-heading"><em>Emelie<&sol;em> &lpar;2015&rpar; Movie Rating&colon; &starf;&starf;&starf;&starf; out of 5<&sol;h3>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>If you’d like to watch <em>Emelie<&sol;em> &lpar;2015&rpar;&comma; it is currently available to rent&comma; purchase&comma; or stream via <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B01C4PLR6O&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B01C4PLR6O&amp&semi;linkId&equals;6b851f1d60e5ef8f00f82eafa0501cf1">Amazon Prime<&sol;a>&period; For more film reviews like this one&comma; be sure to check out the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;">Philosophy in Film<&sol;a> homepage&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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