The Good Son (1993)
Directed by Joseph Ruben
There seems to be a fair amount of horror/suspense movies that deal with evil children: The Omen, Bloody Birthday, The Bad Seed, just to name a few. It has almost become cliché at this point, but back in 1993 maybe not. Child actors are hit or miss, mostly miss so these movies tend to be a mix bag.
The Good Son is about a boy named Mark (Elijah Wood) goes to Maine to stay with his aunt and uncle after his mother dies. Mark befriends his cousin Henry (Macaulay Culkin) but soon finds out he has a very disturbing side to him. Henry is very manipulative and destructive. Mark is now in a hellish scenario of protecting his cousin Connie from Henry whilst trying to convince everyone that Henry is dangerous. The film climaxes with a gut-wrenching series of events, that I won’t ruin for you.
First off I have to say that Macauley Culkin is amazing in this movie. He does a great job of portraying the innocent looking kid with an evil and dark side. Elijah Wood also puts in a great performance as Mark, he shows so much emotion for a young boy that it is obvious watching this that he would become a future star. Perhaps if Culkin wasn’t scarred by his parents and Michael Jackson, his career would have been different. Any of the other characters, really aren’t that important. The adults are there for logical reasons, the other kids are a bit wooden, basically just Macauley’s siblings honestly.
Special effects take a back seat for suspense, character development in this one, and that is more than ok. There is some backstory with Henry, that involves his little brother Richard, we gain bits and pieces of the story and it gets added in such the slightest, light handed way that its great. I really don’t want to give anything away, especially the ending which actually left my wife saying “wow”.
If you’re really into slow burn movies that are suspenseful and unnerving at times. The Good Son is a memorable movie that deserves more recognition. I have seen this at least 3 times and I’m always amazed by the job Culkin does in this. Give this a watch, it is on HBOMax. I give The Good Son a B+, it is a solid movie but still I’d have a hard time revisiting this one a lot, because it is slower paced.
