Case 39
 | This page has too many spoiler tags, to the point that the page is unreadable Somebody who is familiar with the work needs to identify what is not actually a spoiler and un-hide it; if everything that is tagged as spoilers actually are spoilers, then the page needs to be marked at the very beginning as containing multiple spoilers and all of the spoiler tags removed. Please see All The Tropes:Style Guide/Spoilers#Don't Overspoiler for further information and editing guidelines. |
Case 39 is a 2009 (released 2010 in the USA) horror film starring Renee Zellweger and Bradley Cooper. Zellweger plays Emily, a Child Services worker who's working thirty-eight cases--and then saddled with one more. It's Case 39 that leads Emily into strange, sinister territory, with suspicious parents and a little girl who may not be all that she seems.
Reviews were middling to negative, complaining about an unoriginal plot.
Tropes used in Case 39 include:
- Abusive Parents: The reason why Emily was assigned Lilith's case. Darkly justified; Lilith turns out to be a demon, and her parents were trying to get rid of her.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Lilith.
- Broken Record: Why Emily? Why Emily? Why Emily?...
- Creepy Child: Lily starts to show signs of this. Then It Got Worse.
- Danger Takes a Backseat
- Earn Your Happy Ending
- Enfant Terrible
- Evil Sounds Deep: Lilith's voice deepens whenever her demonic side manifests itself.
- Eye Scream: After Lilith's father stabs an inmate whom Lilith spoke through, he accidentally stabs himself in the eye with a fork.
- Kill It with Fire: Lilith's parents tried doing this to her (specifically, by roasting her in their oven). Emily and Mike stopped them. Later, Emily attempts this by burning down her house while Lilith is sedated. It doesn't work.
- Meaningful Name: Lilith
- Mood Whiplash: After Emily locks herself in her room and hides under her bed, Lilith --- who at this point uses her super strength to break through Emily's bedroom door--- comes in menacingly, looking for her. She finds Emily under her bed, and the first thing she does is smile and ask "What are you doing down there, you silly pumpkinhead?" before quickly switching back to Creepy Child mode.
- Never Trust a Trailer: Trailers suggested that a demon was after Lilith, and her parents planned to sacrifice her in order to save themselves. In the actual film, Lilith is the demon, and her parents were actually justified in trying to kill her.
- They didn't just show scenes out of context. They actually created all new scenes that are nowhere in the film.
- Our Demons Are Different
- Our Souls Are Different: Lilith's father explains to Emily how each person is given an eternal soul when they are born. This is the source of Lilith's problem: when she was born, a demon slipped into her body instead of a soul.
- The Soulless: Lilith.
- Why Did It Have To Be Hornets?
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Played with. Lilith plays the role of a girl abused by her parents, leading Emily to eventually break into their house when they're about to burn her in the oven. As we later learn, Lilith was the truly abusive one in the house, and Emily "rescuing" her saved her life and allowed her to move on to another victim.