Welcome to Cultoween! Last year, we took a look at some completely random horror gems from any year, which resulted in a lot of possibilities – of course, we had the whole wide genre to sift through! This year, we are limiting things a bit. There’s still the randomness, still the surprise, but instead of allowing for any horror movie, the selection must come from our own collection! We’re picking unseen movies that we currently physically own! A collector’s worst nightmare is spending money on a disc and then never getting around to watching that, so we’re rectifying that and digging into some titles we own but have never watched.
Adapted from a novel by Bernard Taylor, this 1980 film follows a couple who unwittingly adopt a demon child after her mother gives birth in their home and then disappears. Over the course of years, the little girl whittles down the family’s other children until only she remains.
The Godsend is like The Omen-lite, crossed with a little bit of Rosemary’s Baby and a lot of Village of the Damned. Even at the time of its release – both in novel and film form – it was quite clear this was just another derivation of the popular trend of demonic or evil children, and Gabrielle Beaumont’s film directorial debut also suffers the added ailment of being quite dull.
There’s the crumb of a good idea here stemming from the torment of motherhood, that the matriarch nearly always feels responsible for the well-being of her children, even to the extent that she’ll protect her adopted daughter despite obviously evil intentions. But unfortunately the film never really deals with any of its themes or the grief of its characters, all too willing to gloss over multiple child deaths without spending much time exploring the impact on the family (besides the obvious – that a demon now resides in their house).
It also doesn’t help that almost every death occurs off-screen. There’s an obvious reason for that: The Godsend is just not brave enough to depict much actual child violence except for its climactic death sequence. Unlike the excellent Who Can Kill a Child? or even Children of the Corn, The Godsend mostly asks the viewer to just imagine the deaths, making for a pretty slow build to an uneventful ending.
No. This movie mostly takes place in summery weather and around outdoor locales, and it doesn’t have much of a moody atmosphere besides. While I wouldn’t really recommend the movie anyway, it’s also not very suitable for Halloween viewing.
Skip this entirely.
Instead, watch The Omen again or the aforementioned Who Can Kill a Child? for some better evil-influenced children.
