Hurt

Above Average Psychological Thriller
This suspense drama immediately puts itself a cut above the average by being set in an auto junkyard. While most psychological thrillers set their struggling young families either in impossibly luxurious, spacious homes - or else in old isolated farmhouses that the family moves to in order to "get a new start" - "Hurt" takes a different tack. Here a newly widowed mother and her children go back and join her brother-in-law in his ramshackle auto salvage business out on the desert.

This makes for a complex, realistic setting with lots of sharp edges and shadows. There is also a pack of wolves prowling the property, adding an extra fillip of menace.

It becomes clear that not all the gears in this reconstructed family are meshing quite right. The brother-in-law broodingly takes refuge in restoring a Ford Fairlane in one of the sheds on the property. The young son takes refuge in welding old car parts together into works of modern art. The mother adds to this already...

Has its moments, but uninspired in general
"Hurt" reminds me of the Lifetime Movie Network's movies with its predictable plot twists, less than credible acting, and melodramatic scenes. It stars Melora Walters (Wanda in Big Love) as a widow who finds herself facing financial difficulties after the untimely death of her husband. With two teenagers to support, she is forced to rely on the charity of her brother-in-law, a reclusive character who reluctantly takes the family in. Despite living on someone else's charity, the widow decides to abide by her dead husband's wishes to take in a foster child, an orphan (Sofia Vassilieva of Medium)who seems harmless enough, yet also harbors a dark secret. The widow's teenage daughter who is finding it hard to deal with their diminished circumstances, takes an instant dislike to the young orphan, and when things start to rapidly deteriorate, she begins to suspect all is not well with the youngster.

There are some aspects in this movie that don't make much sense - the widow is...

A gripping and eerie saga to the very end
Hurt is a terror-inducing movie about a newly widowed single mother Helen Coltrane (played by Melora Walters of "Big Love"), her teenage son (Jackson Rathbone of "Twilight") and daughter, seeking aid from her hermit-like, gun-toting brother-in-law. As they struggle to come to grips with the drastic changes in their life, they cross paths with a foster child who claims that Helen's late husband pledged to take her in. They do so... with dire consequences as one by one lies, illusions, and darkness unravel. A gripping and eerie saga to the very end, especially recommended for fans of tense psychological thrillers. 97 minutes, rated R.

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