Adopting Terror (2012)

A Brilliant Conflict

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

The acting in this movie is really good.

One of the things you can count on with Sean Astin is that he will give you a great performance no matter how lousy the script or dialogue. This is a made for TV Lifetime film with the expected quality. Tim (Sean Astin) and Cheryl (Samaire Armstrong) adopt a bay girl. The film implies Tim has some male issues.Along with the baby girl, they also get as a bonus the murderous biological father (Brendan Fehr) as a stalker wanting his bay back, one that the state took away. The action builds as expected, including the Lifetime twist.Lifetime fans will love it.I am less enthusiastic.

One of those movies that is neither good or bad but just below average. Adopting Terror does have some things going for it, the best aspect being the menacing performance of Brendan Fehr, an achievement for someone who doesn't have a huge amount to work with. The first 15 minutes or so are unsettling too, the baby is adorable and the locations show effort and a sense of atmosphere. The production values and supporting cast generally are very competent but they are never more than that, they're never cheap or bad but just without distinction throughout. Unfortunately the leads don't carry Adopting Terror well at all. Sean Astin has a flat character to begin with and he brings very little emotion in terms of acting which only accentuates that fact, instead it is a very stiff and lifeless performance. Samaire Armstrong's acting is a mix of overwrought overacting and disinterested mumbling, one of those vulnerable-meaning performances that doesn't strike the right chord in the least bit. The chemistry between Astin and Armstrong never convinces either. The music is far too heavy-sounding and too much of a dirge in terms of tempo, it does tone down a little later on but it's never memorable and it happens too late really. The script is also uncomfortably clunky and ham-fisted, delivered also with very little urgency and it never does find the right tone. The story is the chief factor in where Adopting Terror falls down, the ending is one that doesn't surprise in the least bit, the movie is often very dully paced especially in the middle and this is one thriller with very little if any suspense or thrills and instead reeks of predictability. If there were any scares intended at all they were very tame, and the more melodramatic elements didn't seem to be taken that seriously, it's all underwritten and overacted that any melodrama comes across as more cheesy than poignant. The characters are not developed and not easy to invest in, Fehr's character was the most rootable and that wasn't even the intention, that actually shows how flatly realised Astin and Armstrong's characters are. Overall, Adopting Terror starts well and has good locations, an adorable baby and one very good performance but the lead performances, music, script and story are really lacking. And the production values and supporting cast fall into the camp of never being amateurish but never standout-worthy either. 4/10 Bethany Cox

If you're looking for a comedy horror that is so bad it's funny, this is a great movie. One scene has the bio mom locking the bio dad in the trunk of a ... Wait for it... FIREBIRD. that's a hatchback, for those who didn't already know that... Kinda impossible to lock someone in a hatchback. Superhd makes the adoptive moms makeup look horrible, and there are a TON of spoofs accidents and the like. I thought it was great, horrible, but great. Quite a few b-lister familiar faces in here too! The plot is totally predictable and incredibly cliché, which is just another charming hilarity.Basically, a kid gets taken to cps, then adopted out, dad relocates daughter after serving time and stalks adoptive family all cliché tall dark and loomy... The cps lady feels a little suspicious, like she's coming on to the husband or something just seems... Off.. OMG she's bio mom! AND she's working WITH bio dad!! Shocking!!So many more cheesy moments, I won't spoil them all for you... And I sincerely hope I've met my ten line minimum because there really isn't enough substance in this movie to write ten lines about!

This thriller is a good one since you don't realize through 3/4 of the film that it is actually a thriller.You will first come to view the police and adoption agency both inadequate in providing for protection when an adopting couple begin to be immediately harassed by the biological father. Their inability to do anything to ameliorate the situation is shocking and shows what's wrong with the adoption system. Of course, this leads to further mayhem for all concerned.You will begin to suspect that something is terribly amiss when the doctor in charge of the agency is murdered. It is at this point that the movie becomes a thriller with the real mother coming out of the wood-work and that in itself is a definite shocker.