A Kevin Costner movie? Well, well, well. Given that he has done such crazy things in the past, I truly did not know what to anticipate. But wow, was I surprised! It ended up being a fantastic film.
It included all the elements I enjoyed, including solitary fathers, spooky creatures, woodlands, and kids who are obviously experiencing paranormal activity. The movie actually incorporates the eerie element into it like a vine on a tree, as opposed to employing nonstop action-packed scenes.
Actually, John Conolly’s short tale of the same name served as the inspiration for the film. I really want to read the book after seeing the movie so I can compare the two and decide which is superior. I know it is a nerd move, but if you are interested in seeing the comparison or know anything about the book, let us know in the comments section below! Let us now discuss The New Daughter’s sinister undertones.
How Far Will A Father Go To Protect The Ones He Loves? -The New Daughter (2009)
John James, played by Kevin Costner, is a recently divorced novelist who relocates to rural South Carolina with his teenage daughter Louisa, played by Ivana Baquero, and his young son Sam, played by Gattlin Griffith. We see the eerie creepiness in the movie from the start when there are ominous footprints on the steps leading to Louisa’s room.
As the film progresses, we see that the relationship between John and Louisa is strained like it is between most parents and children after a divorce. She accuses him of never loving her mother and ruining everything. She thinks he let her go without doing anything, which he justifies by saying that she made a decision, and it had to be respected.
As the night progresses, Louisa hears strange noises outside her bedroom window on the family’s first night in the house. A humanoid creature lurks outside on the roof, unseen by her. While John struggles with a new book, the children find a loaded gun which John buries later.
In a way, it is like giving a funeral to a gun. After the gun debacle, the children go exploring the surrounding fields and forest and come across a large mound. Louisa is immediately drawn to it, but Sam is hesitant to approach it. Later that night, John hears strange noises, which he goes out to explore. Meanwhile, their cat, Marmalade, disappears. As much as John wants to look for the cat, a creepy-looking tree stops him from further exploring and finding it.
The next morning, the entire family goes to the town. Louisa and Sam start school. During the grocery run, John discovers that his house is notorious for the disappearance of a woman who once lived there. When he returns home, he finds Louisa’s pet cat brutally mutilated near the house. Louisa returns to the mound to relax after a bad day at school and hears strange noises while relaxing in the sun.
The film cuts to John cutting his hand while washing dishes as Louisa hears what sounds like approaching animal growls. John discovers a trail of muddy footprints from the open front door to the bathroom that night, bringing us back to the creepy ominousness of it all. Louisa is shown inside her bathroom, the door shut, sitting in the tub as the shower washes her muddy body. As it reaches the drain, the dirty water turns red with blood.
Later that night, John finds Louisa sleepwalking with twigs in her hair. When he puts her back to bed, he discovers a strange straw doll in her hand with a live spider inside it. Louisa arrives for breakfast the next morning wearing a short black dress and make-up. John asks if she remembers anything from last night and about the straw doll as well. But she claims that she has never seen it. In school, Louisa is bullied by a preppy girl on the school’s stairwell.
Meanwhile, back home, John discovers a heap of muddy clothes in her bedroom. He goes to the mound to explore and see if he can figure out why Louisa is so obsessed with it. He discovers the head of Louisa’s doll and the bloody remains of a blackbird.
He is then called to pick up Louisa from school because she isn’t feeling well. He passes the girl who was bullying Louisa in the infirmary, injured with a broken arm. Louisa had told Cassandra, Sam’s teacher, that she was adopted. She gives John her phone number and offers to help him out with any issues he might have with parenting.
Later that night, he sees a spider nest in the kitchen drawer where he had placed the straw doll. The creepy factor keeps increasing as John sees Louisa emerge from the woods that night despite the fact that he had told her to be back before it got dark. He draws her attention to the scar visible on her neck, but Louisa storms off without explanation. At dinner, something seems off with her as she starts eating like a starving animal.
The very same night, John searches up a bunch of things to understand where he is going wrong in the parenting process or if there is something extra that he should be doing. The internet seems to be unhelpful, so he meets up with Cassandra for her insight.
Meanwhile, Louisa is seen scrubbing the house. Louisa hears the same ominous animal noises outside the house and leaves while John is away. As John drives home, he notices a shadowy figure, which resembles Louisa, running through the woods in front of the house. He gets out of his car and follows the sounds of animal growls, but as he gets scared, he rushes back to his car. When a stone shatters his car window, he dashes back to his house. He asks Louisa if she’d been outside just then, but she says she hadn’t. He then tells her that she can no longer go out to play at the mound.
The next day, John’s agent arrives at the house, and they discuss the property. He finds out about the missing woman, Sarah Wayne, and her daughter. He makes up his mind to go and find out more about the situation to make sure that his family is safe.
Meanwhile, Louisa instructs Sam to climb the ladder to the attic. Sam collapses, frightened by animal noises. He has a nasty fall that leads to seven stitches, and she gets scolded for neglecting her younger brother. That evening, John searches the internet and comes across an article about burial mounds. He attempts to contact a subject expert, Professor White, but he is ignored.
He then looks into the previous owner of the house, Sarah Wayne; she vanished one day, leaving no trace, after locking her teenage daughter Emily in her bedroom from the outside. Emily was eventually discovered alive and moved in with her grandfather, Roger Wayne. Mrs. Amworth babysits the children while John searches for Roger Wayne. Scarring can be seen on the nape of Louisa’s neck as she watches him drive away from her window. She then goes back to the mound. She comes back covered in mud, and her hands look like they are decaying.
When John arrives at Roger Wayne’s empty house, he enters and takes a look around. In the girl’s room, he discovers a strange nest made of twigs and straw and a drawing of the burial mound on a wall with the word “home” beneath it. Roger arrives and confronts John for trespassing. But then they get talking, and he explains what happened with Emily and how he burned down his house with her inside, insisting that she was no longer his granddaughter.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Amworth is locked out of the house while John is away, and animal growls can be heard approaching. She keeps crying out for someone to open the door. Sam hears the babysitter’s cries for help, but he is terrified and locks himself in his room.
When John gets home, he consoles a scared Sam. He rushes over to Louisa to find out what happened to the babysitter. She claims she has no idea. After reporting the babysitter’s disappearance to the police, Louisa falls sick again and starts to throw up. She asks him if he will abandon her as her mother did. He tells her he will never do so.
That night, John dreams about a doorway on top of the burial mound, and Louisa transforms into a creature who says, “I’m your new daughter.”
The next day, he discovers a nest similar to the one at Roger’s house in Louisa’s closet. That day, John hires a contractor to demolish the mound. Professor White, who had called back to inquire about the mound, arrives unexpectedly and begs John to wait. He tells John about an ancient civilization that believed burial mounds were the homes of ancient Gods, or “mound-walkers.”
He mentions a gift-giving ritual, including small straw dolls, which John discovered, and the mound-walkers’ search for a young girl with whom to mate and give birth to a new generation of deities to reclaim the earth. John, terrified, orders the bulldozer to begin. Mrs. Amworth’s body is discovered when it digs into the mound. Meanwhile, Louisa is scraping the ground with her fingers in the schoolyard. While Cassandra looks after the kids, John is taken to the police station for questioning.
Officer Ed Lowry drives John home that night when they are attacked, and Lowry is dragged from the patrol car by a creature. John returns home, finding it in disarray and Cassandra with her throat slit. She passes away while motioning toward Louisa, who is standing in the doorway. Louisa refuses to leave as John gathers the children. Mound-walkers attack the house, and John kills three of them.
Louisa has gone missing since the attack, but her screams can be heard from the mound. John leaves Sam in his room and tells him to “be a big boy” while waiting for the police. When John goes to the mound to save Louisa, he discovers a tunnel leading into it.
He pierces a gasoline can, plants some explosives left over from the postponed demolition near the tunnel entrance, lights a flare, and crawls inside. Louisa is discovered unconscious and drenched in mud. Enraged creatures howl and chase him as he carries her out. Meanwhile, Sam has left the house, clutched a framed family portrait, and peered into the darkness toward the sounds emanating from the mound.
John and Louisa escape the mound and block the tunnel with the leaking fuel canister, but another mound-walker is already outside. Louisa collapses, pleading with her father not to abandon her. John looks down at her and notices her morphing into one of the creatures. He throws a flare into the leaking diesel fuel, and the mound explodes. The flames are reflected on the glass of the frame as Sam watches. A figure can be seen emerging, but its identity is unknown. “Daddy?” Sam calls out as a shadow moves in the trees and the house behind him. As the screen goes black, a growling creature appears directly behind him.
Why should you watch The New Daughter (2009)?
Throughout the film, there is an ominous background that works really well. Everything from the plot, the music score and the greyish hue added to everything, is a mark of the director’s decision to make everything very subdued. This film really shows us that a lack of gore does not make for a bad horror film at all.
It only adds to the eeriness of the movie and allows the viewer to really feel the chill. It is a well-written movie and super entertaining as a horror flick. The sounds made by the creature? Super creepy. And their faces? Creepier. I particularly enjoyed the bit where Louisa starts turning into a mound walker herself. It is a breathtaking scene.