Let's say for argument's sake that you have a child. Don't deny it, buddy. It's yours. Maury said so. We've seen the pictures. Little guy has your mean mug and everything.
Maybe I should be more specific.
Let's say you have a child that you care about, that you love, that you would do anything for. Let's say that child becomes possessed by a demon and to save her soul you have to kill six of the child's blood relatives.
I'm sure most of you already have a short list of people in your family you wouldn't mind sending to Hell to keep your own kid out of there. Maybe you have a doddering, old grandpa who's already in a vegetative state anyway, or an uncle who's a drunk, unemployed moocher. But what happens when the last few people on your list live too far away or your spoiled douchebag cousin just won't die? Do you kill your mom? Your sister? Yourself?
The movie I'm going to tell you about considers all these very pertinent questions. This week's Thursday Thriller is The Chosen.
This 2015 Ben Jehoshua film is about a teenager named Cameron (Kian Lawley). His family is dysfunctional to say the least. He lives in his grandmother's house with his mom Eliza (Elizabeth Keener), and the aforementioned Uncle Joey (Chris Gann). Together they take care of Grand Dad (Harvey Popick) and Angie (Mykayla Sohn). Angie is the daughter of Caitlin (Angelica Chitwood). Caitlin is Eliza's daughter. That makes Cameron Caitlin's brother, Caitlin Cameron's sister, and Eliza their mom and Angie's grandmother. Got it?
Eliza has custody of Angie and won't let Caitlin see her because Caitlin's a drug addict, and one of her babies has already died. Angie becomes possessed by the demon Lilith when Cameron ignores mom and takes the child to see Caitlin, then can't mind his own business during a domestic disturbance in the apartment next door.
It's fun. Cameron and Caitlin bicker about who they're going to kill next as Cameron picks off members of the family, smears blood symbols on their heads, and feeds them to a smoke monster under Angie's bed. The scares are more driven by character interactions than startling splatters. The Chosen is a good drama. It streams on Netflix.