A BAD SEED WITH STUNTED NARRATIVE GROWTH.

Byline: Glenn Whipp

Film Critic

When it comes to bad seeds, few tykes sprout higher than the title character in George Ratliff's "Joshua," a psychological horror film a bit light on both the psychology and the horror for its own good.

Joshua, a 9-year-old Manhattan boy-about-town has certainly put in his time at the Damien Finishing School for Sons of Satan. He has the perfectly coiffed hair, preternaturally calm manner and dress code -- shirt always buttoned snugly to the top -- down pat.

Joshua also plays a mean classical piano (though his free-jazz version of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" is the stuff of nightmares), possesses a growing interest in the art of mummification, has a habit of materializing out of nowhere, and may or may not be willfully driving everyone in his family insane.

Or could it be the other way around? Maybe Joshua (Jacob Kogan) is the sane one. Maybe his hedge-fund-manager father (Sam Rockwell), post-partum-plagued mother (Vera Farmiga) and Jesus freak grandma are the crazy ones, and Joshua's just trying to keep his head up and muddle through. (Though that doesn't explain all the dead animals the kid seems to leave in his wake.)

Ratliff, making his feature debut after directing the more profoundly disturbing 2001 doc "Hell House," wants to keep his audience off-balance, but he doesn't leave much guesswork in his plotting or staging. It's abundantly clear that spooky-serene Joshua isn't too happy that Mom and Dad had the audacity to bring another child into the world, and he's going to act out until he reconfigures the family to his liking.

That's all well and good, but aside from Farmiga noisily cataloging the mother's growing hysteria, we don't really get the psychological underpinnings of the family life. Father and son seem miles apart, but Dad isn't the Great Santini.

Rockwell even buys little Joshua a book about the Egyptians and embalming and lets him bail on sports without a hint of disapproval.

So why is Joshua bad? Beats me. And Ratliff, too. The movie nails the atmosphere -- the sound design is marvelous -- and when Rockwell finally wakes up and smells the embers from the Lake of Fire, the actor comes through with another one of his beautifully unhinged performances. At that point, "Joshua" becomes really fun. But then, in a matter of minutes, the boy ruins that, too. What a stinker.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

[e-mail]

JOSHUA - Two and one half stars

(R: language, some disturbing behavior by a child)

Starring: Sam Rockwell, Vera Farmiga, Jacob Kogan.

Director: George Ratliff.

Running time: 1 hr. 45 min.

Playing: ArcLight in Hollywood; AMC Century 15 in Century City; Landmark's NuWilshire in Santa Monica.

In a nutshell: Bad seed wreaks havoc on Manhattan family in a psychological horror film that's a bit light on both the psychology and the horror.

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Jacob Kogan is a bad seed who leaves dead animals in his wake -- and is unhappy about the new baby -- in "Joshua."