Day 99: Masters of Horror: Fair-Haired Child

Masters of Horror: Fair-Haired Child

Chew souls with your mouth closed

Happy Easter for those that celebrate it. I've been on the road most of the day so I'll try to keep this short and sweet since I am recovering from white-line fever. I know there are some Easter-related horror movies out there, but unfortunately that are not easy to come by via streaming. So, I did the next best thing and watched a movie about resurrection. That's close enough, right?

Fair-Haired Child stars Lindsay Pulsipher (CSI:NY, The Beast) as the outcast teenager, Tara. Tara is hit by a van on her way home from school and kidnapped by a man. She wakes up in a hospital bed with a nurse named Judith (Lori Petty, Tank Girl, A League Of Their Own) by her side. Judith informs Tara that she is in Vermont and allows her to call her mom. Tara's mom is completely out of it and is of no help. Judith asks Tara some strange questions like if she has been baptized and if she is a virgin. Tara finds out that she is not in a hospital, but in fact an estate in Maine and tries to escape. She is grabbed by Antoine, the man that hit her with the van and she is thrown into a cellar with no stairs. Inside the cellar, Tara finds a mute teenage boy trying to hang himself. She stops him and the two bond over their predicament. His name is Johnny and he can only communicate by writing words in dust. There are messages written on the walls including one to “Beware the fair-haired child.” Johnny transforms into a hideous demon and chases after Tara. She is able to avoid him long enough until he reverts back to human form. It is revealed that Johnny is the son of Judith and Antoine and that he drowned 12 years ago. They cut a deal with the devil to resurrect Johnny in exchange for killing 1 child per year for 12 years. Will Tara be able to survive and help Johnny?

This never would have happened to Dottie

Interesting. That's the best way to describe Fair-Haired Child. It's an interesting episode of Masters of Horror. It's not necessarily good nor bad, and for whatever reason I can't really put my finger on why. The movie has an original twist to the usual dead child resurrection story. The transitions to present and flashbacks are a bit clunky and a little difficult to follow. One flashback uses some creative effects and shots, which were cool to look at, but didn't really fit in with the rest of the movie. No other flashbacks looked like it so I'm confused as to why the bothered to do it in the first place. The demon creature Johnny turns into is also worth mentioning. It's herky-jerky movements are played out and it's a little funny looking (in a bad way). The shots from the demon's perspective via night vision are a good idea, but we don't really see anything of note, once again raising the question of “why bother?”

Lori Petty does a good job in her role of the obsessed mother. She has a stone-cold look to her that just screams “evil villain.” Lindsay Pulsipher is decent, though she did get on my nerves at some points. She must have said “Johnny” about 30 times in this movie, but I guess you can blame the writers for that. It kind of bothered me that Judith let Tara call her mother. Why give her the chance to call anyone. Hell, why bother with the whole hospital/nurse ruse? You already kidnapped her, why not just dump her in the cellar to begin with and save yourself the trouble? It makes no sense. NO SENSE!

Black metal is just weird some times

Don't get me wrong, Fair-Haired Child isn't a bad movie. It had some excitement and good pacing. I wanted to see what happened and what was going to happen, so the movie does deserve credit for that. The plot holes were hard to ignore and the monster was too funny looking to be scarey. Lori Petty has a great performance and should be in more horror movies. It's worth a watch if you have nothing better to do or if you're too full of chocolate and candy to move.

6/10