[W]hy is it so hard to make a scary flick about evil kids these days? The Omen remake was pretty hilarious, and Joshua is ridiculous, though they are apparently attempting to re-position it as a "black comedy"
Joshua (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:95
Fresh:59
Rotten:36
Average Rating:6.3/10
Consensus: Though Joshua is ultimately too formulaic, its intelligence and suspenseful buildup heighten the overall creep factor.
Theatrical Release:2007
Box Office: $442,201
Synopsis: Brad (Sam Rockwell) and Abby Cairn (Vera Farmiga) seem to have it all. A successful Manhattan couple living in a plush uptown apartment, they have just welcomed their second child into the... Brad (Sam Rockwell) and Abby Cairn (Vera Farmiga) seem to have it all. A successful Manhattan couple living in a plush uptown apartment, they have just welcomed their second child into the family--a lovely little girl named Lily. Everything should be golden for the happy family, but their little boy--the nine-year-old Joshua (Jacob Kogan)--is less than pleased with the latest addition to the family. An intelligent but odd little boy, Joshua's lack of humor and preoccupation with death belie his tender age, and as the parents coo over Lily, it becomes clear that they are not quite sure what to make of their stone-faced son. When Lily suddenly turns from a quiet baby into one who mysteriously begins wailing day and night, the Cairns' ordered life quickly disintegrates. The lack of sleep and stress takes a heavy toll on the mentally fragile Abby, and Brad begins racing around the city trying to care for his newborn daughter, ailing wife, and emotionally disturbed son. The family stress mounts, and when small animals and the family dog turn up dead, it doesn't take long before fingers begin pointing at the brooding and bizarre Joshua. Vera Farmiga delivers a realistic and disturbing performance as someone tottering at the edge of emotional collapse, and Sam Rockwell is a true pleasure to watch in his turn as a father desperately trying to hold his life together. Using a slow, teasing pace and claustrophobic camera angles, the film strives for a Hitchockian level of suspense while also delivering many topnotch performances. [More]
Starring: Jacob Kogan, Sam Rockwell, Vera Farmiga, Celia Weston
Starring: Jacob Kogan, Sam Rockwell, Vera Farmiga, Celia Weston, Dallas Roberts, Michael McKean
Director: George Ratliff
Director: George Ratliff
Screenwriter: George Ratliff, David Gilbert
Producer: Johnathan Dorfman
Composer: Nico Muhly
Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures
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Reviews for Joshua
Perhaps the scariest thing about Joshua was the feeling I got at the end that I had just sat through some kind of weird gay panic movie.
Builds to a number of gripping climaxes that leave the viewer quite shaken by how subtly and effectively this movie delivers on the thrills.
A twisty, chilly vision of haute-yuppie parenting as unrelenting nightmare, an ingenious reworking of the demon-seed genre in which the evil child is not the real villain.
Supremely assured ... a creepily black comedy that eschews huge campy shocks in favor of a bunch of little nonchalant stings that add up to something fierce.
Harrowing, controlled and diabolically self-assured, Joshua leaves filmgoers teetering on their own emotional precipice, wondering just where pathos ends and pathology begins.
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.
Joshua is a psychological thriller so devoid of value, it makes one wonder if someone in the acquisition department at Fox Searchlight doesn't have a drinking problem.
While Ratliff deserves credit for trying to use real demons - postpartum depression, child abuse - as elements of horror, Joshua fails to thrill because it never feels remotely realistic.
Clever performances and great atmospherics compensate for the gaps in logic.
There's a definite "Bad Seed" vibe going on in this sophisticated psychological thriller that unfolds with such precision you'll want to see it a second time just to catch its many degrees of nuanced escalation.
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.
Despite such creepy moments, the film's fundamental narrative is more wearying than horrifying.
Watch this movie on a night when you don't think you need birth control.
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Trailer & Poster review ![]()
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| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 66% 66% | Public Enemies |
| 83% 83% | Harry Potter and the H… |
| 44% 44% | Night at the Museum: B… |
| 75% 75% | Julie & Julia |
| 32% 32% | Terminator Salvation |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 88% 88% | Inglourious Basterds |
| 78% 78% | The Hangover |
| 49% 49% | Taking Woodstock |
| 26% 26% | The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard |
| 47% 47% | The Girl From Monaco |
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