Case 39 is a 2009 American supernatural horror film directed by Christian Alvart, and starring Renée Zellweger, Jodelle Ferland, Bradley Cooper, and Ian McShane.

The film revolves around a social worker who attempts to protect a little girl from her violent parents but finds that things are more dangerous than she had expected.

Emily Jenkins is a social worker assigned to investigate the family of 10-year-old Lillith Sullivan, as her grades have declined and an emotional rift with her parents has emerged.

That night, after receiving a "strange phone call" at his apartment, Douglas is panicked by the sight of a mass of hornets coming out of his body and kills himself by snapping his own neck.

Shortly after Emily leaves the asylum, both parents die; her mother is fatally burnt, and her father is stabbed in the eye with a fork.

[1] The film was shot in Vancouver in late 2006 and was released theatrically in the UK, other European, and in Latin American countries on August 13, 2009.

The website's consensus reads: "Director Christian Alvert has a certain stylish flair, but it's wasted on Case 39's frightless, unoriginal plot.

"[2] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 25 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.

[3] Gareth Jones of Dread Central gave the film 2 out of 5 "knives", considering it a good thing that it was not released in the domestic market for over two years, saying: "I'm sure it will do decent business among the undemanding weekend-horror crowd and Zellweger fans when it eventually sees the light of day.