Case 39 Review

Halloween is the season for candy, haunted houses, costumes, and of course, scary movies!  I started my scary movie marathon with Case 39, an excellent horror movie staring Renee Zellweger as a social worker fighting to save children from difficult home environments.   I have to say, I'm a little biased because this movie hit very close to home for me.  I spent 2 years working as an  in home therapist for children at risk from being removed from the home by DHR.  I felt the main character's suffering and related to her and the therapist's and psychologists that ran the children's groups profoundly.  It is a hard job and often you lose more than you win in the battles to save children from their environment.

Case 39 gives you a character who is fighting this battle every day and is desperate to win and save the world one child at a time.  She is overworked and under paid and on top of her huge caseload she gets another client, case 39.   The main character relates to this case more than any other and goes above and beyond the call of duty to save a little girl from parents that clearly want to kill her.  When the system fails,  she enlists one of her close friends on the police force to save the girl and they find her parents trying to put the sleeping child into an oven.

Of course, our sweet, tragic girl is not what she seems.   It isn't long after Rene takes the tragic child in before the children on Rene's caseload begin to have horrible things happen to them.  It isn't just the children.  All those around her begin to die or suffer worse fates than death.  Case 39 was a good movie that I wouldn't mind seeing again.  It is definitely a good start to my Halloween horror fest!