Case 39 is a 2009 American supernatural horror film directed by Christian Alvart, and starring Renée Zellweger, Jodelle Ferland, Bradley Cooper and Ian McShane.

Plot

Emily Jenkins (Renée Zellweger) is a social worker living in Oregon who is assigned to investigate the family of Lillith Sullivan (Jodelle Ferland), a troubled ten-year-old whose school grades have declined due to an emotional rift with her parents, Edward and Margaret Sullivan (Callum Keith Rennie and Kerry O Malley). Emily suspects that the parents have been abusing Lillith for her lack of obedience and begins to investigate the family further, questioning Lillith about her parents and planning a visit at the family s home. When Lillith is interviewed by Emily s boss and is too intimidated to answer his questions honestly, Emily visits Lillith at her school and gives the girl her home phone number, telling her to call if she is being hurt or needs help.

Her suspicion is later confirmed when Lillith calls Emily in the middle of the night, informing her that her parents are coming to kill her. With the help of Detective Mike Barron (Ian McShane), Emily intercepts and captures Edward and Margaret before they can incinerate Lillith by trapping her in their home oven and baking her alive.

Lillith is originally going to be sent to the children s home, but she begs Emily to look after her instead, and with the agreement of the board, Emily is assigned to take care of Lillith until a suitable foster family comes along. Two weeks after Lillith moves in with Emily, a boy named Diego (Alexander Conti), another one of Emily s cases, brutally murders his parents in the middle of the night, and Detective Barron informs Emily that somebody phoned Diego the night before the crime, and that the call originated from her home.

As she is suspected of involvement in the incident, Lillith undergoes a psychiatric evaluation by Emily s best friend, Douglas J. Ames (Bradley Cooper). However, during the session, Lillith asks Douglas what his fears are and begins to subtly threaten him by turning the questions around and beginning to evaluate him. Douglas conveys his discomfort to Emily and says that he will call a specialist in the morning to help with Lillith s evaluation. During the night Douglas receives a strange phone call at his home. A mass of hornets, which Douglas had previously told Lillith that he was afraid of, begin to fly out of his body, and he grows hysterical and kills himself.

After speaking to Diego and attending Douglas funeral Emily becomes more suspicious of Lillith than her parents, and visits the asylum where Edward and Margaret are being kept under custody for their attempted murder of Lillith. Margaret is hysterical and unable to see visitors but Edward reveals to her that Lillith is far from human and is actually a Succubus-like demon who feeds on emotion, and is capable of causing deadly hallucinations based on her victims fears. Their attempt to kill her had been an attempt to save themselves and others, and that she is now feeding off of Emily s kindness and goodness and that Lillith will bleed her dry before moving on to her next victim.

Edward also informs Emily that the only way to kill Lillith is to get her to sleep, which she rarely does. Shortly after Emily leaves the asylum Margaret hallucinates that she is on fire and Edward is stabbed in the eye after attacking a fellow inmate who spoke to him in the voice of Lillith. After Detective Barron receives a strange phone call in his home from Lillith he arms himself to help Emily. However, as he is on his way to Emily, Lillith makes him hallucinate that he is being attacked by dogs and he fatally shoots himself in the head with his shotgun.

After realizing that her closest colleagues have been eliminated and that the rest of her cases will be next, Emily serves Lillith tea spiked with a sedative and waits for her to fall asleep. While Lillith is asleep, Emily douses her home in gasoline and sets it ablaze, hoping to kill Lillith. However, Lillith, upon discovering Emily s plot, escapes unharmed.

A police officer offers to escort Emily and Lillith to a temporary place to sleep but as Emily is following the police cars, she suddenly takes a different route. She drives recklessly and at a high speed to scare Lillith but the girl forces Emily to relive her childhood memory of her mother driving fast in a rainstorm and a truck overturning in their path. Emily fights the memory, telling herself that it is not real and the image fades, leaving Lillith herself confused that her illusions no longer scare Emily.

Emily crashes through a gate and drives the car off a pier into a lake. As the car sinks, Emily struggles to lock Lillith (now in full demon form) in the trunk by folding the rear seats back against her and drowning her. Emily exits the car and swims away but Lillith grabs her leg through a hole in the car s tail light section. Eventually Emily breaks free and Lillith lets go as the car continues to sink. Emily climbs back ashore and watches the water to assure she is really gone. The film ends with Emily smiling, relieved to finally be rid of Lillith.

Alternate ending

On the DVD as a deleted scene in the Special Features section, Emily careens through the harbor gate and drives the car off the pier into the bay just as in the theatrical ending. The car sinks to the bottom and fills with water. Suddenly, a man swims down to the car, opens Lillith s door, and carries her to the surface, leaving Emily behind. Emily tries unsuccessfully to open her door but begins to pass out. Then the man reappears and frees her too. As an ambulance carries Emily away, a news broadcast details the event, and Margaret Sullivan can be seen watching it. In the final scenes, Emily can be seen in handcuffs, frantically pleading with her lawyer to tell her where Lillith is. However, her lawyer refuses to answer, and instead orders for her to be shipped off to the asylum for schizophrenia. Meanwhile, Lillith arrives at the home of her new foster family.

Cast

• Renée Zellweger as Emily Jenkins
• Jodelle Ferland as Lillith Lily Sullivan
• Ian McShane as Detective Mike Barron
• Bradley Cooper as Dr. Douglas J. Ames
• Callum Keith Rennie as Edward Sullivan
• Kerry O Malley as Margaret Sullivan
• Adrian Lester as Wayne
• Georgia Craig as Denise
• Cynthia Stevenson as Nancy
• Alexander Conti as Diego

Production

On October 31, 2006, a fire started on the film s set in Vancouver. None of the cast were on the set at the time and nobody was seriously injured, though the set and studio were destroyed. The film was shot in Vancouver in late 2006 and was released theatrically in the UK, other European, and in Latin American countries on August 13, 2009. The film was initially scheduled for U.S. release in August 2008, but was delayed twice before its final release date on October 1, 2010.

Reception

Box office

Case 39 was released to New Zealand cinemas on August 13, 2009 and in its opening weekend ranked #12, with NZ$35,056. It averaged a low NZ$1,845 at the 19 cinemas it was released. The film opened at a small wide release in Australia, being shown on 85 screens, and ranked #12 in its opening weekend, with a screen average of AU$2,077 and a gross of AU$176,526. Negative local reviews and its poor opening were followed by a 70% second weekend decrease. The film grossed a total of AU$332,956. It had a total of US$14,926,149 from its international run ahead of its U.S. release.

In its debut weekend in the United States, the film opened at #7, with an estimated US$5,350,000 in 2,211 theaters, averaging US$2,420 per cinema.

Critical response

Case 39 received mostly negative reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 21% rating, based on 75 reviews, with the consensus stating, Director Christian Alvert has a certain stylish flair, but it s wasted on Case 39 s frightless, unoriginal plot. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 25 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating generally unfavorable reviews.

Gareth Jones of Dread Central gave the film 2 out of 5 knives, saying, I m sure it will do decent business among the undemanding weekend-horror crowd and Zellweger fans when it eventually sees the light of day. Nobody else need apply. Margaret Pomeranz of the Australian version of At the Movies gave the film one out of 5 stars, calling it one of the least scary, dumbest movies I ve seen in a long time. Her co-host David Stratton gave it 1½ out of 5, commenting that once it sort of kicks into the plot – once it really gets down to the nitty gritty, like so many horror films it just becomes really ridiculous and silly.

Year	2009
ReleaseDate	2010-10-01
RuntimeMins	109
RuntimeStr	1h 49min
Plot	A social worker fights to save a girl from her abusive parents, only to discover that the situation is more dangerous than she ever expected.
Awards	Awards, 3 nominations
Directors	Christian Alvart
Writers	Ray Wright
Stars	Renée Zellweger, Ian McShane, Jodelle Ferland
Produced by	Lisa Bruce,Steve Golin,Alix Madigan,Kevin Misher,Scott Thaler
Music by	Michl Britsch
Cinematography by	Hagen Bogdanski
Film Editing by	Mark Goldblatt
Casting By	Sarah Finn,Randi Hiller
Production Design by	John Willett
Art Direction by	Ross Dempster
Set Decoration by	Andrea French
Costume Design by	Monique Prudhomme
Makeup Department	Donna Bis,Susan Boyd,Chris Devitt,Rebecca Lee,Toby Lindala,Lisa Love,Nancy Steyns,Brad Wilder,Lance Anderson,Julie Beaton-Pachauer,Harlow MacFarlane,Geoff Redknap,Candice Stafford
Production Management	Wayne Bennett,Richard Stirling
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director	Neil Allan,Scott J. Ateah,Warren Hanna,Paula S. Kyan,Patrice Leung,Greg Milton,Gordon Piper,Tracey Poirier,Heather Grierson,Colleen Mitchell,Adam J. Piechnik
Art Department	Vanessa Anderson,Travis J. Brooks,John Burke,Janice Chiu,Jason Claridge,Trevor Cole,Miya Dube,Peter Grace,Steve Houle,Mark Howes,Douglas Jang,Herminio Kam,Mike Lilley,Eric Partridge,Steven Reintjes,Mike Sorochuk,Shelley Surette,Grant Swain,Nevin Swain,Darryl Tifenbach,Mark Tompkins,Carie Wallis,Mikal Williams,Mike Wilson,Berj Daniel Bedrosian,Robert Consing,Nelson Dewey,J.J. Mestinsek,Darren Moore,D. Martin Myatt,Dean Rossmo,Jan Saße,Dylan Schenkeveld,Marc Vena
Sound Department	Bryan Arenas,Bob Baron,Darren Brisker,David A. Cohen,Pete Dawood,Ronald Eng,Cameron Foodikoff,Dana LeBlanc Frankley,Robin Harlan,Justin Herman,Doug Jackson,Jon Lavender,Daniel J. Leahy,Sarah Monat,Willard Overstreet,Albert Roca,Randy Singer,Gary Summers,Robert Troy,Steve Tushar,Christopher Cleator,Oleg Kulchytskyi,Glen Noseworthy,Christopher Sidor,Jim Ward
Special Effects by	Bob Comer,Dan Keeler,Robert Lyle,Greg Pyne,Terry Sonderhoff,Edward Gettis,Roy Goode,Barry Hebein,James Kozier,Curt Storms,Harry Tomsic
Visual Effects by	Simon Ager,Luis Carlos Aguilar,Lee Allan,Casey Allen,Michael Amasio,Alena Astashenkava,Susanne Becker,Riley Benard,Michael Bogen,Kathryn Bolt,Guy Botham,Justin Brekke,Jeff Bruneel,Shauna Bryan,Craig Calvert,Hyemee Choi,Joshua Cordes,Bryan Davies,Kristin Dearholt,Chris Derochie,Mike Diltz,Jason Dowdeswell,Debora Dunphy,James Fantin,Kelly Fischer,Chad L. Fox,Marissa Fraering,Evan Fraser,Paul Furminger,Joe Gareri,Matthew Gilson,Sally Goldberg,Antony Graf,Brian Hanable,Chris Haney,Zane Harker,Mark Harrison,Peter Hart,Maureen Healy,Hans Heymans,Steven Hodgson,Suez Holland,Jeremy Hunt,Yasamin Ismaili,Travis Wade Ivy,Viv Jim,Brad Kalinoski,Dean Koonjul,Bill Kunin,Alex Kyrou,Tom Lamb,Matthew Lane,Amy Lee,Erik Liles,Kimberly Nelson LoCascio,Hugh Macdonald,Shelley Maclean,Allen Maris,Agata Matuszak,Dan Mayer,Tony Meagher,Abel Milanes,Robert Montgomery,Brian Moylan,Thomas Nittmann,Collette Nunes,Robert Olsson,Jinnie Pak,Russell Pearsall,Diana Jane Perry,Christine Petrov,Chi Pham,Lee Pierce,Ed Plant,Gary Poole,Scott Puckett,Mark Pullyblank,Becky Roberts,Chris Roff,Karl Rogovin,Daniel Rubin,Peter Scott,Judy D. Shane,Wayne A. Shepherd,Karl Sisson,David Sosalla,Mark Stewart,Naomi Stopa,Shigeharu Tomotoshi,Luke Vallee,Sebastien Veilleux,Juliana Wade,Sean Wallitsch,Chris Watts,Chris Wells,Bob Wiatr,Edson Williams,Greg Winhall,Loeng Wong-Savun,Yoshiya Yamada,Ryan Zuttermeister,Eri Adachi,Dan Adams,Josh Awesome,Graeme Baitz,Richie Basilan,Jamie Baxter,Ryan Beadle,David Chen,Vincent KS Cheng,Trent Claus,Chase Cooper,Samuel M. Dabbs,Mark Dornfeld,Nick Drew,Paddy Eason,Marcus Erbar,Gerald Feather,Brian Fisher,Patrick Flannery,Joni Golley,Miguel A. Guerrero,Jason Hancox,R.J. Harbour,Karl Herrmann,Shaina Holmes,Simon Hughes,Chris Ingersoll,Tom Kimberley,Daniel Kruse,Paulina Kuszta,Benjamin Kutsko,Charles Lai,Jeremy Lang,Matthias Lowry,Tom Mangat,Tom McHattie,Ryan Mintenko,Fion Mok,Sam Nixon,Roma O’Connor,Vasho Pekar,Enrico Perei,Chris Pettigrew,Mario Pochat,Jody Prouse,Christopher J. Richardson,Michael Richmond,Becky Roberts,Scott Russell,Vishal Rustgi,Harrison Rutherford,Drew Shields,Curtis Tsai,Brent Veal,Mike Washburn,Amani Williams,Jessica Woods,Teh-wei Yeh,Blade Zavier
Stunts	Mark Aisbett,Brin Alexander,Ed Anders,Douglas Chapman,Lauro David Chartrand-DelValle,Dean Choe,Laura Lee Connery,Mike Crestejo,Crystal Dalman,Mike Desabrais,Marny Eng,Caroline Field,Corry Glass,Tom Glass,Rob Hayter,Kim Howey,Ernie Jackson,David Jacox,Jon Kralt,Michael Langlois,Terrance Leigh,John MacDonald,Reg Milne,Gaston Morrison,Scott Nicholson,Gerald Paetz,Ninon Parent,Rick Pearce,Matt Phillips,Darryl Scheelar,Kimani Ray Smith,Jodi Stecyk,Clay Virtue,Kimberly Cossette,Colin Decker,Duane Dickinson,Ryan Ennis,Daniel F. Malone,Karine Mauffrey,James Mitchell-Clyde,Justin Sain,Chad Sayn
Camera and Electrical Department	Artino Ahmadi,Dustin Allen,Donnie Armstrong,Chris Bedyk,Hans Bjerno,Jeff Bonny,Paul Bougie,Dillard Brinson,Peter G. Capadouca,Andrew Capicik,Nelson Caseley,David Crone,Bill Dawson,Jose Deleon,J. Norman Earle,Gil Forrester,Kimberly French,Brent Gies,Ken Hemphill,Karl Herrmann,Richard LaBossiere,Harvey LaRocque,Michael P.R. Lemmers,Jenny Madsen,Katie Matheson,Stephen J. McKnight,Richard McSweeney,Rob Parisien,Zane Rossouw,Ian Seabrook,Rick Stadder,Randy Stamhuis,Patrick Stepien,Mike Stroman,Jim van Dijk,Daniel Volonino,Roger Wells,Mike West,Aaron Wik,Herb DeWaal,Conrad W. Hall,Paul T. Murakami,Michelle Ortt,Aki Shigematsu,Jim van Dijk
Casting Department	Heike Brandstatter,Sandra-Ken Freeman,Tamara Hunter,Taylor Jenkins,Coreen Mayrs,Caitlin McKenna,Leah Nelson,Trica Thompson,Tiffany Mak,Alicia Scott
Costume and Wardrobe Department	Angela Bright,Nancy Bryant,Christine Coutts,Summer Eves,Paul Lavigne,Robin McMullan
Editorial Department	Steve Ansell,John Brandon,Jason Dale,Kathryn Fowler,Jeff James,Jason Modica,Mary Nelson-Duerrstein,Stephen R. Sheridan,Ryan Valade,Yvonne Valdez,Barbara Holmes,Skip Kimball,Joe Margetson,Mitch Paulson,Mark Sawicki
Location Management	John K. Alexander,Danny McWilliams,Laura Porkert,Paul Russell,John Cefalu
Music Department	Bob Bornstein,Chuck Choi,Sandy DeCrescent,Greg Dennen,Elizabeth Finch,John Finklea,Bruce Fowler,Walt Fowler,Rick Giovinazzo,Scott Hosfeld,Lisa Jaime,Steve Kempster,Penka Kouneva,Ken Kugler,Yvonne S. Moriarty,Ryan Robinson,Peter Rotter,Rich Wheeler,Greg Hayes,The Hollywood Studio Symphony,Jason Ruder
Script and Continuity Department	Danielle de Smit,Christine Lalande
Transportation Department	Darren Collins,Mike Godenir,David Halliday,John O’Toole,Terry Woodcock,Terence Chase,Paul E. Stroh
Additional Crew	Dino Arsens,Jody Beaudin,Karen Bergen,Andrew Christmas,Zarah Chun,Sarah Clifford,Peter Conway,Sarah Ezrin,Steve Flynn,Julia Frittaion,Shawn Gairdner,Lauren Geaghan,Jennifer Giannone,Rahni Gill,Braden Haggerty,Carla Dawn Jackson,Reign Kinaschuk,Peter Lapres,Marcie Larson,Jennifer Malloy,Sarah Anne Milliken,Bob Neve,Thuy-Van Nguyen,Simona Pandele,Larena Patrick,Michele Picard,Sherri Potter,Alison Rasberry,Lori M. Roberts,Elisha Schaff,Mark Shannon,Carmen Siegers,Jeremy Smith,Kimberley Sutton,Erin Unrau,Ryan Valade,Kathleen Whelan,Roger Williams,Peter Zimmerman,Hannah Rita Rose Amar,Gloria Winship Ayon,Shane Ayon,Murray Barker,Paul Becker,Michael T. Brady,Stephanie Brown,Marie Elder,Vincent Joseph Flaherty,Jay Floyd,Les Ford,Ellie Fox,Dan Griffin,Amy Hussey,Jim Lau,Grant Lutz,Clayton Lyons,Rod McDonough,James McLeod,Laurent Piche,Aura Pithart,Darren Robertson,Ashley Joelle Smith,Jeanine Wilson,Jerome Zelle
Genres	Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Companies	Paramount Vantage, Misher Films, Anonymous Content
Countries	USA, Canada
Languages	English
ContentRating	R
ImDbRating	6.2
ImDbRatingVotes	86832
MetacriticRating	25
Keywords	social worker,supernatural horror,child welfare worker,therapist,female protagonist