Bless the Child is a 2000 supernatural horror film directed by Chuck Russell, and starring Kim Basinger, Jimmy Smits, Angela Bettis, Rufus Sewell, Christina Ricci, and Holliston Coleman.

Based on the 1993 novel by Cathy Cash Spellman, it follows a woman who discovers that her niece, whom she has adopted, is being sought by a Satanic cult seeking to use her supernatural abilities.

Filmed in Toronto in late 1999, Bless the Child was released theatrically in North America on August 11, 2000, to overwhelmingly negative critical reviews,[11] and was a box-office bomb.

Meanwhile, a series of child kidnappings and murders are plaguing the city, investigated by FBI Special Agent John Travis, a former seminary student.

When Maggie returns home, she is surprised to find Jenna, now clean and sober, there with her new husband, Eric Stark, a famous self-help guru, attempting to take Cody.

Cheri subsequently contacts Maggie, and explains she was previously a member of New Dawn, which is actually a front for a Luciferian cult, spearheaded by Eric.

She says that the cult recently began kidnapping six-year-old children and subjecting them to tests; those who failed were murdered in what Cheri describes as the "slaughter of the innocents".

Meanwhile, the nuns at Sister Rosa's convent, worried over Maggie's failure to arrive with Cody, pray en masse for their wellbeing.

"[32] Vicky Edwards of the Chicago Tribune gave it a mixed review, calling it "Entertaining, but it doesn't add enough to the genre to make it truly blessed.

[34] Film critic Bruce Kirkland felt that Bless the Child was mocking Scientology in the guise of the fictional cult "The New Dawn".

The site's consensus states: "Bless the Child squanders its talented cast on a plot that's more likely to inspire unintentional laughs than shivers.

[39] The film was nominated for one Razzie Award, Worst Actress for Kim Basinger, along with I Dreamed of Africa, but lost to Madonna for The Next Best Thing.