19 of 31: The New Daughter (2009)

A vain attempt by a formerly prolific blogger to review 31 new (to me) horror films in the 31 days of October. We did it last year and it was a gas. Can we do it once more? Let's find out.

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Platform: Showtime on regular cable
Starring: Kevin Costner

I had no idea that Kevin Costner ever made a horror film. Just doesn't seem to be part of his oeuvre, if you know what I mean. And if you know what I mean, I'm glad. Because I'm not sure I'm using that word correctly. Bottom line...horror doesn't seem to be his bag. Baseball, rom-coms, grumpy action hero joints...sure. Just not horror.

In this one he plays a recently divorced man with a teenaged daughter and a younger son who moves them to a remote house in the country. Local rumors abound about the place, including tales of a woman who went missing around there. Plus there is a giant burial mound on the grounds of the property. Not good. Then the family cat goes missing and is found the next day mutilated. Already I'm pissed. No need to kill the family cat.

More freaky shit starts happening. The girl is oddly attracted by the burial ground, she winds up covered in mud and blood, Costner keeps finding an odd straw doll and the house seems to be infested by spiders. His daughter is becoming more and more unstable, and we soon see she has some weird scarring on her back and neck. Something to do with that burial mound. Possibly an old Native American burial ground.

Two tropes of horror films you should never mess with. 1) Don't move your family into an old creepy house in the middle of nowhere. 2) Stay far away from ancient Native American burial grounds. So Costner fucks up twice in this one. He discovers that the same stuff happening to his family happened to the previous owners. A young girl seemingly became obsessed/possessed by something in the burial ground, and bad shit began happening to the family.

History is going to repeat itself.

As has been a theme here on the Dude this month, this film is nothing new in the horror genre. But it offers some decent frights and good production values. And those are two things that can make even a bad horror film a whole lot more watchable. 

Verdant Dude Rating: 2.5 out of 5 pumpkin ales.