Sam Rockwell and Vera Farmiga star in director George Ratliff's uncomfortable psychological thriller Joshua, as Brad and Abby Cairn, an affluent young stockbroker and his wife, raising children in New York City. Their firstborn, the nine-year-old Joshua (Jacob Kogan), is a frighteningly intelligent child -- to such a degree that he thinks and acts decades ahead of his age. Nearly always clad in formal wear and demonstrating limitless brilliance as a pianist -- with a marked predilection for
"dissonant" classical pieces -- Joshua gravitates toward his gay aesthete uncle (Dallas Roberts) as a close friend, but distances himself from his immediate kin -- particularly when Abby brings a newborn baby sister home from the hospital and unwisely alienates the young tyke. As the days pass, one at a time, the mood at the house regresses from healthy and happy to strange, unsettled, and disorienting; meanwhile, bizarre events transpire. As the baby's whines drive an already strained Abby to the point of a nervous breakdown, Joshua devolves from eccentric to downright sociopathic behavior, discarding all of his toys, disemboweling a stuffed animal, and killing off pets. One at a time, family members also begin to suffer tragic fates -- but are they Joshua's fevered and psychotic doings or merely the result of happenstance? ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
'Joshua': More than a 'horror film' - a staunchly unforgiving, thoroughly uncomproming look at how a child systematically ruins the lives of his parents
The contrived script expects us to believe that Joshua's fainting spells, his nocturnal home videos of his sleeping family and his acts of violence on crowded New York City streets fail to raise suspicion until it is too late.
Easily written off as an "Omen" retread at first glance, this unfairly passed-over piece of slow-burn terror disarmingly chipped away at ideas of parental readiness with mounting dread and gruesome humor. It burrows beneath the skin and stays there.
The film is the ultimate birth control. If you plan on one day having kids, don't see this film. If you already have children, you will never look at them the same way again.
The kid scarefest creepy concept here is the perfect child, a well mannered, talented and freaky miniature adult. But the story feels abruptly cut off before its designated ending, so don't be surprised if Joshua returns for a premeditated sequel.
The stress that mounts throughout this strangely tame and quietly spooky horror thriller has a masterfully palpable asphyxiating mood to it that the director exploits for maximum audience discomfort and unrelieved dread.
Bad seed? The whole dang garden is rotten in 'Joshua,' a psychological horror film that demonstrates that the poison apple doesn't fall far from the toxic family tree.
When the film falters, it's when it pulls its punches and gives us conventional horror that we can hold off at a safe distance, rather than uncomfortable insights that we can unsettlingly recognize from our own household experience.
Rather strange movie. Really strange kid. This movie never really comes to a climax the way one might hope, and there are a some unanswered questions. It is pretty clear, however, that the child had a weird agenda all along. A really strange agenda to say the least...
What a strangle little film. I think this is one of those films that needs to be watched a second time before you can fully appreciate it. Maybe. I've yet to find out.
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