Bless the Child
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Bless the Child is a 2000 thriller/horror film directed by Chuck Russell. It is based on a novel written by Cathy Cash Spellman.
- Tagline: Mankind's last hope just turned six.
Plot summary
The story begins with child psychologist Maggie O'Connor (played by Kim Basinger) meeting her sister Jenna (Angela Bettis) and Jenna's autistic daughter Cody, who is merely days old when we're first introduced to her, at Maggie's apartment. This was somewhat of a surprise, since Jenna, a drug addict, had been missing for a couple of years. Soon Jenna disappears again, leaving Cody with Maggie who decides to raise Cody on her own.After six years, Jenna is back, this time with her husband Eric Stark (Rufus Sewell), and they abduct Cody. The FBI agent John Travis (Jimmy Smits) is already investigating several cases of missing children, and starts an investigation of this abduction as well, when he realise that Cody has the same birth date as the other missing children. Meanwhile, Cody has begun to manifest strange powers, such as telekinesis, and at one point she also brings a bird back to life, much to the her class-mates' fascination.
The abduction of young Cody was more than just a mother wanting her child back, it is revealed; her husband Eric is the head of "New Dawn," a cult which is trying to find a special child born on December 16th, 1993. Maggie meets Cheri Post (Christina Ricci), a member of the cult. Cheri informs Maggie that New Dawn is a cult of Satan worship, and that they plan on using Cody's powers for the dark side, and if it won't work, they will sacrifice Cody. Cheri is soon punished for leaking information, and is chased down and decapitated.
Eventually, a satanic ritual is to take place, in order to make Cody join the dark side. Maggie and agent Travis comes to rescue. Agent Travis kills Eric, while angels protect Cody. Maggie sacrifices her own life when saving Cody from being shot. Maggie is brought back to life by God's powers working through Cody.
Trivia
- The bridge where the car "accident" takes place is actually the Blue Water Bridge between Sarnia, Ontario and Port Huron, Michigan. It was being "twinned" at the time so the whole bridge was closed down for repairs and was available for numerous re-takes. The scenery shots of NYC were then placed in the background, although people who grew up there recognize the shores as being Sarnia and Pt. Huron, respectively, not NYC.
- In the original script, a character is deliberately pushed off a subway platform. This had to be changed to an accidental fall before the Toronto Transit Commission would allow filming on its property.
- When the candles in the cathedral ignite together, the camera pulls back and Maggie's shirt can be seen blowing, as if the candles were in fact being blown out, and film was run backwards.
- The line "the devils greatest trick was convincing man that he didn't exist" is a reference to a similar line in another movie of the same genre, End of Days (1999), in which Father Kovak (Rod Steiger) says: "Satan's greatest trick was convincing man that he didn't exist.". It also refers to The Usual Suspects (1995) where the line "The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist." shows up.
- The subway station where the attack on Meg takes place is a "ghost" station on the Toronto subway that is used frequently as a stand in for New York subways. The city's film office wanted to leave it set up as a NYC station but the Toronto fire department nixed that idea. The station is below the Bay station on the Bloor line, on the track connecting the Bloor and Yonge lines. At one time trains went from one line to the other - thus the station - but the practice was discontinued because of switching problems. (There is also a "ghost" station beneath the Queen Street station. It was roughed in 1954 for a planned Queen Street subway which never was built.)
External links
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