Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.

I know there’s a trailer for this out there now, but I haven’t seen it yet. In fact, until I read this, I didn’t even know what the film was about. Check this out:

Hey Harry and co. got the chance to see "Joshua" this week and wanted to let you all know my thoughts since I hadn't seen any coverage of this small film on your site. I wrote a review for "The Island" a long time back and haven't seen anything ahead of time that was really worth letting you know about until "Joshua" came along. The movie tells the story of the Cairn family and basically the psychological traumas they go through once they welcome a new baby to the family. To say the least, the movie is not what I expected.

From what little press I've read on the movie I assumed it would be an Omen-like horror flick, but it's very much a slow, ponderous psychological thriller, that emphasizes tone over overt scares. In fact the few overt scares were the weakest points in the film. The film starts off with what seems like an idyllic family, Brad (Sam Rockwell), Abby (Vera Farmiga), fawning over their new baby while their 9-year-old Joshua (Jacob Kogan) remains slightly colder and starts asking strange questions of Brad: like if he loved him, and what he was like as a baby. Abby emphasizes early on that the new baby is much easier than Joshua was, and through a home movie we see an emotionally exhausted Abby trying to care for constantly crying baby Joshua. Soon after this, though, the new baby starts crying non-stop causing Abby to spiral downward, constantly crying herself and acting increasingly nutty. I don't want to ruin anything but from here on the film becomes increasingly emotionally exhausting and unsettling.

I can't say that I really loved "Joshua" or that I hated it, but the film has stuck with me and I am still analyzing it in my head days later(which you can't say about too many movies these days). I don't really feel like I got a handle on the character of Joshua and how he was involved with his Abby's emotional unraveling. His manipulation of Brad was set-up better and the culmination of that arc felt much more earned. Abby's mental health problems felt too tangential and when the film tries to tie that to Joshua, it doesn't really seem that plausible. While what happens to Brad does feel like it's a direct cause of Joshua's actions. The film's strength is the eery tone it strikes, it doesn't bang you over the head with false-scares and obvious acts of evil from Joshua, just creepy little moments here and there and sustained moments of suspense. When there are a couple "scare moments" in the film they feel so out of place they take away from the film, like Brad and Abby forgot they had a nine-year-old and are surprised when he's there.

The major strong suit of the movie are the great perfomances from everyone involved. Sam Rockwell (always a welcome presence in any movie) gets to play a normal guy for the first time that I remember and while he infuses that character with a sense of humor it's never overbearing or out of place in the real world context of the movie. Vera Farmiga handles the extremely demanding roll of Abby very well, she has some really tough emotional scenes and she nails them all. And Jacob Krogen is very good as Joshua, never acting "evil" or twisted just seeming completely natural in all of his scenes. There's some great supporting performances as well from Celia Weston and Dallas Roberts, only the great Michael Mckean is wasted a Brad's boss.

First-time feature co-writer/director George Ratliff does a very good job of sustaining a mood and I was reminded of 70's horror films like "Rosemary's Baby" where subtelty prevailed over shock. And while "Joshua" is by no means a failure, it's not a complete success either.

If you use this call me Skellington.