The Godsend (1980)

This bleak, nihilistic film is obviously inspired heavily by THE OMEN - and yet remains a far more horrifying picture. This is due to the fact that the victims in this film are all innocent children who get savagely killed, deaths which will upset even the hardest viewer. While it's not a particularly well-made picture in any respect (i.e. the low budget is quite often apparent), the film achieves what it sets out to do, to horrify the viewer, and thus it gets my thumbs up.The lack of big-name stars helps to add to the realism in THE GODSEND. The central characters are played by unknowns, and the only familiar face will be Angela Pleasence in a cameo. Pleasence plays an exceedingly creepy woman who acts as a catalyst for the murders, and is the most disturbing thing in this film. Stoddard and Hayman are very good as the anxious parents, who eventually split up under the pressure; Stoddard is a likable central figure, while Hayman excels as the woman who suffers a nervous breakdown through circumstances she just can't comprehend.The murders are kept off screen (apart from a nasty moment where a child is thrown from a window), leaving our imaginations to play a big part. Each breaks down the parent's mental state further. The little blonde girl is very good in it, too. THE GODSEND is a little-seen, little-heard of film, but for viewers who like to be creeped out (and not through gallons of gore, either), then it deserves some tracking down.

I wasn't sure what to expect of this movie But I enjoyed itI found the girl to cute to evil but boy was one evil girl, but hers eyes scenes got really annoying At timesThe plot was a little , girl been adopted into family , with number of kidsThere others kids starts to killed of one by one years apart for skme odd reasonWe only get to see the aftermath of the deaths I liked one strange scence , which really wearied but great to watch6 out of 10

**SPOILERS** Going along the same theme as the "The Omen" the British horror flick "The Godsend" is about an unsuspecting couple Alan & Kate Marlowe who end up adopting a child, whom they named Bonnie, that was left practically on their doorstep by this strange and somewhat deranged woman. It's not that long when the Marlowe's take little Bonnie in as their fifth child that three of their own children, Bradly Davy & Sam, end up dying under mysterious circumstances. What's even stranger about the Marlowe's children's dying is that little Bonnie was at the scenes of every one of their deaths!It's Alan who at first becomes suspicious of Bonnie having something to do with his and Kate's children deaths which has him try to find out just who Bonnie's natural mother-the strange one-really is. While trying to get to the bottom of Bonnie's true parents Alan comes down with an almost fatal illness that renders him sterile. At the same time Kate who was pregnant with Alan's child had a mysterious fall down a flight of stairs that caused her to lose her unborn baby!***SPOILERS*** It soon becomes very apparent to Alan that Bonnie is not the sweet and cuddly child that she makes herself out to be and tries to have her taken away from him and Kate by the town's social services. It's later that Kate in having very strong feelings for Bonnie threatens to divorce Alan if he tries to go through with his plan. It's when the much smaller Bonnie turns her evil attention towards the Marlowe's last surviving child Lucy that even Kate finally realizes what a monster in Bonnie the Marlowe family has in its mist. But by then it's too late for Kate or even Alan, who already knows just what Bonnie is all about, to stop her!The shocking ending of the movie has really nothing to do with Bonnie but her what seems like spaced out and odd-ball mother who really isn't all that mysterious at all. She's been doing this, pawning off her new born children, for some time. And as the movie comes to an end we as well as a shocked down to his socks Alan see that she's got another Bonnie in the wings for some unsuspecting couple to raise and end up suffering the very same fate that he and and his wife Kate are experiencing right now!

Another movie about a seemingly cute child with a not-so-cute side; Portland's video/DVD store Movie Madness has in the horror section a whole shelf devoted to Killer Kids. In this case, a typical English family one day picks up a woman who gives birth in their house and then disappears without a trace, leaving her infant daughter with them. Sure enough, their children start getting killed. Basically a rehash of "The Bad Seed", "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Omen". Still, "The Godsend" has a neat side, as the vicious little girl makes some faces that no one would ever associate with a little girl; she did look kind of scary.But in the grand scheme of things, there's nothing new or important about this movie. Not to mention that it ends rather abruptly. Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus produced much better movies over the years. This is the sort of flick that you rent if there's absolutely nothing else available.