As a parent, this movie terrified me.

I found this movie incredible, but also extremely panic inducing as the mother of 4 children. The worst part was the way Tom Arnold's character got her in the car and then made her believe her parents didn't love her and didn't want her. The way he manipulated her shows that no matter how many times you tell your kids not to talk to strangers and not to get in a strange car these sorry pieces filth know what they're doing.

That's was incredibly disturbing and of course I sat all my kids down and had the stranger danger talk again. But it didn't make me feel much better. I thought the film did a good job of illustrating that it's not nearly as simple as watching "The Safe Side." I think watching these videos and thinking that if we teach our kids to stay away from "strangers" gives a false sense of security and this movie makes that clear.

This could happen to any kid, no matter what you've taught them. That part made it virtually un-watchable for me, but I did finish it. It's an excellent film, but not one I recommend very often. It's just too brutal.

One thing I did take away from this film is that it made me understand I needed to change my approach when talking to my kids about this. I told them I had watched a disturbing movie and that's why we were talking. I focused a lot more on this character's ability to convince the child her parents did not love her and didn't want her. I talked about the phone number, because that was actually the most difficult part of this movie to watch. Seeing her abused was sickening, but what really broke my heart was the fact that this girl and then young woman grew up absolutely believing her parents did not love or want her. That message was internalized to such a degree that even even when she met her parents and all the evidence showed her that they did love her, it didn't matter, because that message was part of her core identity. The film showed just hopeless the situation was even after she was "rescued."

I feel like if she was not convinced her parents didn't love or want her she could have gotten away so many times. It was the manipulation that kept her a prisoner, not being locked in a room, although that happened as well. That Arnold's character was so confident in his ability to brainwash these kids that he took them in public many times where they could pretty easily had gotten away and told an adult they had been kidnapped.