Stevie (C)

Admit it. Imaginary friends are creepy.

Stevie is a movie I've passed over on NetFlix a number of times. I went into it expecting nothing and I came out having mostly enjoyed myself. Only now do I know that it was made for television, but I don't really mind. That's not exactly a negative in my opinion. It's a supernatural horror film with a decent atmosphere and a good cast. Though it does suffer from a couple of tired tropes (see below), and I saw the twist coming a mile away, I still liked it.

Claire (Catherine McCormack) and Adrian (Jordi Molla) are a childless married couple living in Spain--at least, I think so. They met in Los Angeles at a time when Claire's architectural career was really taking off, but something happened that caused them to move to what I can only assume is Adrian's birthplace given the nearby presence of his mother and sister, as well as all the Spanish accents. Adrian's mother has recently lost her husband, and she seems to be something of a bitter woman who clashes with Claire whenever they're in the same room together.

Though it's never really spelled out, one gets the impression that Claire can't have children, so she and Adrian decide to adopt an eight year-old girl, Isabel (Ida Jorgensen), through a social worker. Adrian's mother proves to be appalled by this decision, but her son remains steadfast in he and Claire's decision. Isabel proves to be a sweet child who has spent some time in an orphanage following the deaths of her parents. She takes to her new guardians well at first, but as the movie progresses, things begin to turn sour.

Supportive husband or bloodthirsty bounty hunter?

Isabel claims that a fourth person is living in the house with them, someone named Stevie. Adrian and Claire assume that Stevie is Isabel's imaginary friend and think nothing more of it. That is, until Claire begins to experience strange happenings that Isabel attributes to Stevie.

Adrian, who is now busy growing his own career, tries to be supportive, but he's torn between work and his family. He begins to suspect Claire is having mental problems, feeding off of Isabel's childish delusions (this is one of the tropes I spoke of earlier).

The mystery continues to unravel through a series of flashbacks to the couple's time in Los Angeles. Each flashback starts out in black and white and slowly transitions into full color, which makes them easy to spot once you get used to them. I won't give the details away, but suffice it to say the pieces begin to fall together fairly early, and observant viewers should be able to pick up on the subtext pretty early on. I think the climax could have been better, but it serves its purpose well enough.

The cast of Stevie is good, and they handle their roles well. Ida Jorgensen is young, and this appears to be her first (and last) role. Though she does well enough most of the time, her inexperience is occasionally apparent. If you can get past that, you won't have much trouble with the rest of the film.

"I'll put the girl's head in this box! Oh... wrong movie."

I enjoyed Jordi Molla's acting (you may recognize him as Santana in the third Riddick movie), especially considering he's playing a loving husband as opposed to a space merc scumbag. Talk about night and day.

At the end of the day, I don't regret watching Stevie. As I said, it does get pretty creepy at times, though it might have been better with a little more supernatural weirdness sprinkled in. It's an average film, and though I called the twist early on, it's a twist I've never seen done before in other movies. If you're hungry for another ghost flick, you might enjoy it so long as you keep your expectations in check.