The New Daughter is a 2009 American horror film and the feature directorial debut of Spanish screenwriter Luis Berdejo.

Recently divorced novelist John James moves into an old house in rural South Carolina with his teenage daughter, Louisa, and young son, Sam.

The following day, while exploring the surrounding fields and forest, the children find a large mound.

Louisa is inside with the door locked, sitting in the tub as the shower washes her muddied body.

John takes her back to bed and finds a doll made from straw, inside which is a ball containing a spider.

In the infirmary he passes the preppy girl, who apparently "fell" down some stairs and injured her arm.

That night, Louisa emerges from the woods, even though John previously ordered her to be home by dark.

Returning home, John sees a figure, which vaguely looks like Louisa, running through the woods in front of the house.

In Emily's room he finds a nest made from twigs and straw, and a depiction of the burial mound drawn onto a wall with the word "home" below it.

Professor White, having called back to ask about the mound, arrives and pleads with John to wait.

He mentions an ancient civilization who worshiped the burial mounds, believing them to be the homes of Gods, or "mound-walkers".

He talks of a ritual exchange of gifts — including straw dolls — and the mound-walkers' search for a girl with whom to mate and bear a new generation of deities to reclaim the earth.

He pierces a can of gasoline, sets explosives left from the postponed demolition by the tunnel entrance, sparks a flare for light and crawls inside.

John escapes the mound with Louisa and blocks the tunnel with the leaking fuel canister, but another mound-walker is already there outside.

[5] Filming took place primarily at the Wedge Plantation along the Santee River just north of McClellanville, South Carolina.

[6] The exterior of the house in which John James finds Roger Wayne was shot at 67 Moultrie St., Charleston, South Carolina.

Air conditioning units were hidden by temporary evergreen trees which were removed after filming.

Initially distribution rights for The New Daughter were acquired by New Line Cinema but was given a limited theatrical released on December 19, 2009[7] by Anchor Bay.

[12][13] Andrew Barker of Variety wrote: "Nowhere near as bad as its invisible marketing strategy might suggest.