# Bless the Child
**Bless the Child** is a 2000 supernatural horror film directed by [Chuck Russell](https://www.edgepedia.org/chuck-russell), starring [Kim Basinger](https://www.edgepedia.org/kim-basinger) as a nurse who fights a Satanic cult for custody of her gifted niece. It was produced by [Paramount Pictures](https://www.edgepedia.org/paramount-pictures) and Icon Entertainment International and released in the United States on August 11, 2000.[1](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/bless-the-child) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bless_the_child) The screenplay by Tom Rickman, Clifford Green, and Ellen Green adapts the novel by Cathy Cash Spellman.[1](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/bless-the-child)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | August 11, 2000 (United States), wide, distributed domestically by Paramount Pictures[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bless_the_child) |
| Director / producer | Chuck Russell; produced by Mace Neufeld[1](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/bless-the-child) |
| Source | Novel by Cathy Cash Spellman; screenplay by Tom Rickman, Clifford Green, and Ellen Green[1](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/bless-the-child) |
| Principal cast | Kim Basinger (Maggie O'Connor), Jimmy Smits (John Travis), Rufus Sewell (Eric Stark), Angela Bettis (Jenna), Holliston Coleman (Cody), Christina Ricci (Cheri), Ian Holm (Reverend Grissom)[1](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/bless-the-child) • [3](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetails/61058) |
| Budget and gross | $65,000,000 budget; $29,381,494 domestic and $40,443,010 worldwide[4](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0163983/credits/) |
| Critical reception | 4% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (113 reviews); Metacritic metascore of 17 from 27 reviews[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bless_the_child) • [5](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0163983/criticreviews/) |
| Rating | R (violence, drug content, brief language); passed '15' in the UK[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bless_the_child) • [6](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/bless-the-child-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0zmtu2otq) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Maggie O'Connor (Kim Basinger) is a single nurse whose life centers on her career until her sister Jenna ([Angela Bettis](https://www.edgepedia.org/angela-bettis)) appears with a newborn daughter, Cody, and then disappears. Maggie raises the girl, who is autistic, on her own. Six years later Jenna returns with her husband, the cult leader Eric Stark ([Rufus Sewell](https://www.edgepedia.org/rufus-sewell)), and the two abduct Cody. Maggie then discovers that the child has extraordinary powers that forces of evil have waited centuries to control, and, together with FBI specialist John Travis ([Jimmy Smits](https://www.edgepedia.org/jimmy-smits)), an agent focused on occult-related crimes, she races to save her.[1](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/bless-the-child)
The cult's scheme is tied to a birth date. Stark's followers kidnap and murder children born in 1993, leaving the victims branded with a crooked pitchfork design, until Stark finds Cody, who has both the right birth date and the supernatural gifts, including healing and telekinesis, that he wants to exploit.[7](https://www.pluggedin.com/movie-reviews/blessthechild/) • [8](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-aug-11-ca-2459-story.html) Travis takes up Maggie's cause despite her having no legal rights to Cody, after realizing that Cody shares her birth date with several other recently missing children.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bless_the_child) Maggie's allies include a would-be cult defector ([Christina Ricci](https://www.edgepedia.org/christina-ricci) as Cheri), a nun, Sister Rosa (Lumi Cavazos), and a religious scholar, Reverend Grissom ([Ian Holm](https://www.edgepedia.org/ian-holm)).[8](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-aug-11-ca-2459-story.html) • [9](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2000/08/11/bless-only-the-devil-may-care/ebdc12a2-99e8-44f7-96f1-d9e216231a75/)
## Production
The film was a Paramount Pictures production made with Icon Entertainment International and BTC Productions KG, with Mace Neufeld producing and Bruce Davey, Robert Rehme, and Lis Kern as executive producers.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bless_the_child) • [1](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/bless-the-child) Peter Menzies Jr. was the cinematographer, Alan Heim the editor, Carol Spier the production designer, and Christopher Young composed the score.[4](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0163983/credits/) The British Board of Film Classification passed the cinema version, timed at 107 minutes 40 seconds, at '15' for moderate violence, horror, and drug references on August 29, 2000; later home-entertainment versions ran about 103 minutes.[6](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/bless-the-child-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0zmtu2otq) Paramount lists the running time as 110 minutes.[1](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/bless-the-child)
## Reception
**Box office.** Against a budget of $65,000,000, the film opened to $9,413,684 domestically and finished with $29,381,494 in the United States and $40,443,010 worldwide, about 72.6 percent of the total from the domestic market.[4](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0163983/credits/)
**Critics.** Reception was strongly negative. Rotten Tomatoes records a 4% Tomatometer from 113 reviews, with the critics consensus stating that the film "squanders its talented cast on a plot that's more likely to inspire unintentional laughs than shivers"; the audience Popcornmeter stood at 43%.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bless_the_child) Metacritic aggregated a metascore of 17 from 27 reviews, ranging from a 75 (the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's William Arnold, "The movie works -- at least marginally") down to a 0 (the Chicago Reader's Lisa Alspector, "Horrendous dialogue and horrific directing dominate this thriller").[5](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0163983/criticreviews/) The Los Angeles Times acknowledged the film's "suitably Satanic special effects" and sleek studio production values while finding the plot predictable.[8](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-aug-11-ca-2459-story.html) A Fangoria review published on the release date called it a derivative entry that arrived a year after *The Sixth Sense* reinvented the supernaturally gifted-child subgenre, though it judged Basinger's performance fairly compelling once past the opening scenes.[10](https://www.fangoria.com/bless-the-child-review/)
**Religious critics.** The film's spiritual framing drew a split response from Christian reviewers. *Christianity Today* reported that it earned kudos from some Christian critics for empowering the forces of heaven, where comparable supernatural thrillers such as *The Ninth Gate*, *End of Days*, and *Stigmata* had kept them vague or passive; Movieguide wrote that it "has brought Christian allegory to the big screen and deserves the enthusiastic support of the Christian community." Others objected that the script mixed accurate [New Testament](https://www.edgepedia.org/new-testament) material with what they saw as counterfeits, and mainstream reviewers, nearly unanimously negative, echoed complaints about plot silliness.[11](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2000/08/summer-films-cool-down/) Director Chuck Russell framed the film's distinctiveness the same way, saying most supernatural thrillers "tend to empower evil only, which always seemed odd to me."
## Place in the genre
*Bless the Child* belongs to the wave of supernatural thrillers around 2000 that centered on a gifted or endangered child, following *The Sixth Sense* (1999) and echoing *The Omen* (1976). Reviewers noted its similarities to *The Omen* and to the Spanish chiller *The Nameless*, which likewise follows a single woman trying to save a young female relative from a cult.[10](https://www.fangoria.com/bless-the-child-review/) Scholarly discussion of the film has focused on its religious dimension: it invokes biblical notions such as the special status of children, builds suspense around the child's growing awareness rather than the events themselves, and ends with an understanding of human life informed by religious ideas that the child's role unlocks.[12](https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/icrf2022.pdf)
The film is distinct from *Blessed Child* (2019), a documentary about filmmaker Cara Jones's upbringing in the [Unification Church](https://www.edgepedia.org/unification-church), and from the 1988 television film *God Bless the Child*.[13](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/blessed_child)
## References
1. [Bless the Child, Paramount Pictures](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/bless-the-child)
2. [Bless the Child, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bless_the_child)
3. [Bless the Child (2000), AFI Catalog](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetails/61058)
4. [Bless the Child (2000), Box Office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0163983/credits/)
5. [Bless the Child (2000), Metacritic reviews via IMDb](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0163983/criticreviews/)
6. [Bless The Child, British Board of Film Classification](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/bless-the-child-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0zmtu2otq)
7. [Bless the Child, Plugged In review](https://www.pluggedin.com/movie-reviews/blessthechild/)
8. ['Bless the Child': Hmmm, Who Could It Be? Satan?, Los Angeles Times, August 11, 2000](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-aug-11-ca-2459-story.html)
9. ['Bless': Only the Devil May Care, The Washington Post, August 11, 2000](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2000/08/11/bless-only-the-devil-may-care/ebdc12a2-99e8-44f7-96f1-d9e216231a75/)
10. [Review: Bless the Child, Fangoria (The Gingold Files)](https://www.fangoria.com/bless-the-child-review/)
11. [Summer Films Cool Down, Christianity Today, August 16, 2000](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2000/08/summer-films-cool-down/)
12. [Journal of Religion and Film (ICRF 2022 proceedings)](https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/icrf2022.pdf)
13. [Blessed Child, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/blessed_child)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Horror films (individual works) › Religious and demonic horror films*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license