Bless the Child 2000

Vicky Edwards, Chicago Tribune: As satanic flicks go, Bless the Child is entertaining, but it doesn't add enough to the genre to make it truly blessed. Read more

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times: Lapses into an exercise in foolishness. Read more

Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel: This hopelessly cliched horror flick touches all the usual bases without much style or imagination. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: The unintentional effect of movies like Bless the Child is that they are enough to make agnostics out of true believers. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: For my money, Bless the Child is a much funnier parody of a thriller than Scary Movie -- it just doesn't realize it. Read more

Dave McCoy, Seattle Times: A biblical "thriller" so predictable and preposterous that everyone involved should be banished to the confessional for their sins. Read more

Susan Stark, Detroit News: Bless the Child is rubbish. Read more

Tom Maurstad, Dallas Morning News: Bless the Child plays like stick-figure theater. Read more

Paul Clinton (CNN.com), CNN.com: Chocked with every bad satanic cliche imaginable, Bless the Child is like Rosemary's Baby (1968) on steroids. Read more

Elvis Mitchell, New York Times: Seems derivative of so many other movies that you're surprised that it doesn't have to credit its sources the way hip-hop artists do when they sample songs. Read more

Jonathan Foreman, New York Post: After a slow start, it becomes enjoyably creepy, only to decline sharply into a morass of ever more inane ridiculousness. Read more

Lisa Alspector, Chicago Reader: Horrendous dialogue and horrific directing dominate this thriller, in which Coleman's performance shines by default. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Bless the child. But damn the movie. Read more

Steve Murray, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Bless the Child is a demonstration of the evil of banality. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: A supernatural thriller that does for its genre what Battlefield Earth did for science fiction. Read more

Louis B. Parks, Houston Chronicle: Director Chuck Russell ... plays this like high drama, preventing all the potential camp humor and cheap thrills from bursting forth. And the film drags. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Director Chuck Russell also made the infinitely better comedy The Mask. After this, he may want to wear a mask. Read more

Kevin Courrier, Globe and Mail: It makes the battle between good and evil look trite, familiar, and boring. Read more

Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: Should have sold its soul for a little help in the script department. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: From an acting standpoint, you won't find more wood this side of a lumber yard. Read more

Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle: A schlocky thriller that might appeal to less discriminating members of the mall crowd. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Must the makers of Bless the Child bang us over the head with symbolism? Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: The use of child jeopardy as a cheap suspense mechanism is somewhat dubious, but one's unease is slightly mollified by the fact that much of this is far too silly to take seriously. Read more

Robert Koehler, Variety: It reps another disappointing outing from Kim Basinger, who's clearly uninspired by the hack material. Read more

Mark Holcomb, Village Voice: If you're so inclined, pray that the responsible parties crawl back into whatever hole they emerged from. Read more

Rita Kempley, Washington Post: The scariest thing about this hokey bombast is that it got made in the first place. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Isn't genuinely scary enough to suppress the inevitable urge to laugh at its cheesy inconsistencies, but isn't howlingly funny enough to raise it to the level of genius. Read more