Up to a certain point in The New Daughter, I was reminded of Dragonfly. Both are low budget Costner films about a man dealing with a family loss which has a haunting outcome. It has been a while since I saw Dragonfly. Nobody thought it was any good, but it is way better than this film. To start with the obvious, The New Daughter represents what may be Costner's most lazy performance. It seems he has no interest in the story whatsoever. After a while the Dragonfly connection starts to fade away, and the movie turns into something else, something worse unfortunately. The New Daughter is torpid, and is bogged down by too much content, and not enough suspense or intelligent dialogue.
If I am gonna give the film any credit, it would be for photography. This is a gorgeously shot film, where the nights are cold, eerie and evocative, and the safety of home is warm, glowing and golden. The best shot in the film is the last one, which barely makes up for the utter stupidity of the ending. There is much left to explain, but in the end, I don't really care.
The New Daughter, is a spooky story, which is occasionally interesting but is less so than it is sloppily executed, badly acted, and not worth your money.
