Son

Generally well-made and well-acted, this horror/thriller still doesn't really work thanks to a repetitive, fairly predictable storyline and many upsetting scenes of a child screaming in pain. To be sure, Son is evenly paced, sufficiently gory, and intermittently thrilling. Matichak is authentic as Laura, diving deep into motherly love and the instinct to protect her child under any circumstances, while Hirsch shows a compassionate side that's appealing. But the movie kicks off with the momentum of a promised chase that it never really keeps up, despite the occasional lurking figure.

Then it becomes more or less a vampire story, or something vaguely along the lines of Little Shop of Horrors, in which the main character must find the least admirable humans to obtain fresh blood from to sustain its creation. And since each segment happens more or less the same way, with poor David shrieking "it hurts! It hurts so bad!" each time, it gets a little hard to take. Add all this to the fact that the opening sequence hangs over the entire story, anticipating another shoe dropping. When it finally does, it feels like too little, too late. Son was a decent try, but its minuses tend to overpower its plusses.