Child of God (2014)

With Corman McCarthy you know you're not going to get light , frothy family friendly fare . NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN saw film producers queue up to buy film rights for his novels and to be fair THE ROAD is one of the most memorable post apocalyptic American cinema has produced in a very long time , as long as you get past the unrelenting nihilistic mood . With CHILD OF GOD the same in your face attempt to shock the audience is present and at four minutes in the audience are treated to a graphic scene of a character doing a poo ! That gives you an idea of how the film continues and if you don't like CHILD OF GOD by this stage turn off and find90 minutes to do something else !!!!! SUGGESTIVE SPOILERS !!!!!Despite the cast being headed by the prolific James Franco who also directs Franco only appears in cameo . Instead the story is centered around Lester Ballard played by Scott Haze , an outsider of society whose unsocial behaviour eventually mutates in anti-social serial murder . It is a good performance and one wonders if Franco might have had one eye of the Oscars of getting Haze an Oscar nomination . It's certainly worthy of a nom and reading the trivia section we learn Haze takes method acting to new heights by preparing for the role by sleeping in the open and living in a cave . Perhaps by trying too hard the voters of these prestigious awards decided to ignore Haze for this very reason ? More likely however is that when you're playing a character it's essential that the audience emphasise with your aims . Now I don't mean the audience have to agree or sympathise with these aims but must understand them at the most basic fundamental level . Here we see Ballard embark on a killing spree . Fair enough , show me someone who doesn't harbour abstract murderous fantasies and I will show you a hypocritical liar but killing people because of motives of necrophilia is something entirely different . There might be reasons why having sex with a dead body is preferable to a live one but none springs to mind . I have also never watched a film thinking to myself "Hmmm not a bad film but we could have benefited from a few scenes of necrophilia inserted in to it" ; Like pooing necrophilia isn't a spectator sport . The fact that Franco shoots the film with hand-held cameras giving everything a cinema verite feel adds to the alienating feel CHILD OF GOD is an example of a film being well made and acted but also lives up to the phrase "It's not a film for everyone" .meaning it has little commercial appeal and isn't popcorn entertainment for the masses . Bleak and depressing it's one of these films I'm unsure I should have watched in the first place and I'm rather sure I have no compulsion to watch it again . You have been warned

This was probably the darkest and most disturbing thing I've seen a very long time. I could this being based on actual events because it was spot on with the portrayal of some violent mentally ill people. I went from liking the main character, to pitying him, to total disgust. Scott Haze was terrific as well fell farther and farther down the tunnel of insanity almost reversing the evolutionary steps ending up a cave dweller.I had to split the movie into two nights because it got a little tedious in the middle.James Franco is billed as an actor in the movie but he had only a very small part. I wonder if it was down to draw more people to the movie.

Cormac McCarthy's CHILD OF GOD was about as disturbing a book as I've ever read (and that's saying a lot): Lester Ballard reminded me a great deal of Bubba Sawyer ("Leatherface" in THE Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE, who was based on real-life cannibal killer and necropheliac Ed Gein). To do the book justice, however, would've required a very subtle approach- perhaps even a documentary approach. The flamboyant, over-the-top performance of the lead owes more to Leatherface than to an honest interpretation of the CHILD OF GOD. (The opening scenes are like something from a film school project- or, worse still, a television commercial- with their jerky, hand-held cinema verite look that adds absolutely nothing to the movie.) CHILD OF GOD has Form, but no real filmmaking Substance. One of the most glaring gaffs has to be the hillbilly's oral hygiene: how in God's name did he manage to get his choppers so WHITE...?

Not having read the novel (but I will soon), I do not have the burden of comparison that some other reviewers have. I found the film very interesting, in that it portrayed a human being descending into the lowest level of degradation. But his degradation is fueled by the same needs that all children of God have. His disgrace comes in the way he seeks to meet those needs, not in the actual needs themselves. Everyone in the film thinks that Lester is stupid, but he is not, as the ending shows. He is cunning and skilled beyond many of his community. Neither is he summarily shunned by everyone in his surrounding community; many seem to be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt when it comes to daily interactions (for example, the boutique clerk, and the carnival). But his evil attitudes and paranoid suspicions involving social interactions drag him deeper and deeper in to inhumanity. I had to admire the acting of Scott Haze. Yes, I could have done without the defecation scene near the start, but all the other disgraceful scenes seemed essential to the unfolding of the character. Strangely fascinating.