There’s something delightful about a young child swearing. It feels inherently wrong, but in the proper circumstances, it can be a great source of humor and shock.
That’s how it plays in writer/director Christopher B. Stokes’s new Tubi film, Adopted (2024). The “bad seed” narrative follows 10 year old Dylan (Jayden Aguirre), who’s killing his current foster family in the cold open. The case is investigated by Detective Dante Miller (Marques Houston), but Dylan is so convincing at playing the innocent victim that his outlandish story about a killer biker is immediately accepted as fact.
Jump ahead to wealthy couple Carrie (Drew Sidora) and James (Daniel J. Johnson) receiving the happy news that they can adopt Dylan, whose past has somehow been completely buried.
James is happy to support his wife’s desire for a “perfect” family (take a shot each time she says the word), though Carrie’s preference to adopt a girl immediately anticipates hiccups down the line.
Enter Dylan, who initially appears easy going and polite. When Carrie’s not-so-secret wish about having a girl arises, however, Dylan’s happy go-lucky façade begins to unravel. The fact that Bella (Livy Neachell) arrives only two weeks later is only one of the many suspension of disbelief moments in Stokes’ script, which tends to side-step the reality of both adoption and police investigations in favor of telling an entertaining, albeit occasionally ridiculous story.
The most obvious comparison is Orphan, though Adopted doesn’t take things quite so far. What’s impressive is how Stokes manages to subvert expectations roughly 50% of the time, particularly with regard to who Dylan will target. Carrie and James’ newfound fixation on Bella is an obvious source of conflict, so the young boy’s attempt to do away with his sister in the pool isn’t too surprising. Neither is the treatment of Ryan (Jahlil Muhammad), the nephew of paranoid neighbor Diane (Shalet Monique), who frequently blames Dylan for his own bad behavior. Clearly he’ll need to be dealt with.
More intriguing, however, is Dylan’s fascination with Diane’s 17 year old daughter, Melissa (Victoria Nuckles). The boy initially spies on her when she changes, and he even becomes upset when Melissa confesses she has an out-of-town boyfriend. The teenager eventually becomes the film’s de facto protagonist when she begins to suspect that Dylan isn’t the perfect little boy that he pretends to be.
The screenplay stumbles, however, when it comes to Dylan’s backstory. The junior sociopath is very clearly introduced as the villain with some delightfully profane and murderous behavior, but a key flashback confirms that Dylan was physically abused by his father and emotionally berated by his mother. The physical abuse scene is filmed in a tasteful, but still horrific fashion, but it clearly evokes sympathy for the ten-year-old. More importantly, it seemingly exists to explain, at least in part, how and why he became a murderer. This runs counter to the way the rest of the film presents him systematically eliminating obstacles in his path, which is frustrating because Aguirre’s performance is so deliciously over the top in the murder set pieces.
The child actor is easily Adopted’s stand-out. Aguirre changes his body language and vocal cadence to appear younger and more vulnerable whenever Dylan is confronted by an adult, which allows him to disarm them and ultimately gain the upper hand. Aguirre is entirely convincing and hearing a ten year old swear and dress down adults, such as his bitchy line about “dry chicken” to wannabe chef Carrie, is hilariously entertaining.
Alas Stokes’ script and direction occasionally veers away from expectations in a way that hurts the film. Early on, the camera is constantly roaming around Carrie and James as they talk in the kitchen, eventually zeroing in on the kettle as Carrie makes tea. The stove/counter is an object of fixation again later on, which (in filmic language) suggests that either the kettle or the kitchen will factor into Dylan’s plot (perhaps a poisoning or using hot water?). This unfortunately never comes to pass, which renders the focus on these items unusual in hindsight.
The same can be said of the climax. The whole film sets up a conflict wherein Dylan battles his parents, particularly after Bella upends the family balance, but the majority of the final act actually involves Dylan confronting Melissa. Carrie and James do return for the climax, but the balance feels off and the result is rushed.
With that said, several (action) developments go much harder than anticipated and Adopted’s abrupt ‘smash cut to credits’ ending is unexpectedly brazen. Despite a few hiccups in the narrative, between Aguirre’s delightful child antagonist performance, Stokes’ energetic camerawork, and the film’s ballsy final set-piece, there’s plenty to appreciate about Adopted.
Adopted is now streaming on Tubi.
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