[The Children]
Plot:A family trip that goes awry when they come under attack from malicious children in the woods.

Cast:Rachel Shelley, Stephen Campbell Moore, Eva Birthistle, Eva Sayer, Jeremy Sheffield.

My Thoughts:Scary and Disturbing.

Review:Tom Shankland's "The Children" is the best killer-kid flick I have seen since "Children Of The Corn". Although there haven't been many released since then, there have been a few. And they haven't really lived up to expectations. But Shankland's film manages not only to be scary, but also very effective on every level a horror film needs to be effective on in order to be successful. The film follows a family's holiday trip to a house in the woods.

The pic is set during the Christmas season, so the house is filled with the usual christmas novelties, decorations, and such. Things go smoothly at first, until the children start to change little by little. It seems something is affecting them, and causing them to become very pale, silent, and sickly looking. The children soon change from silent, to violent, and begin attacking anyone who isn't a child such as themselves.

Which pretty much means they've declared war on all of the adults, down to the teenage older sister who is accompanying the family on the trip. But what has got the children so angry, and can anyone stop it? Unlike most movies where the killer-kids are either crazy in the head, or possessed by a supernatural force, Shanland's film decides to take a different route for the sole reason of the children's violent and suddenly murderous behavior.

And it's a very smart and clever twist within the story. But at the same time, Shankland's film doesn't make it too evident as to what exactly is going on. And at some points, you find yourself questioning the motive of the childrens change in personality. But through the use of flashy editing, and some intercut moments, most of the reason is pretty much spelled out to you, that, along with some quick dialogue during one of the films outside scenes which you can couple with the flash-edited moments to give a motive here.

The pic has some decent performances, I must say the acting was really above average in this movie, especially by the young actress who plays the teen-aged older sister of one of the killer children. The film is also shot very creepily, and the kids don't turn evil at the drop of a hat. It's a slow descent into this stage of anger, rage, and violence for the kids. A descent which is played out in brilliant directorial fashion. With some slow motion moments, and alot of edgily-filmed scenes such as snow blowing, creaky doors blowing open and shut, strange noises in the background, shadows running by, and the evil laughter of children.

Shankland really plays up the level of menace and terror in the movie, leaving you with a very unsettling feeling throughout that something bad will eventually happen. When the kids finally snap, the moments are indeed surreal, and the first death at the hands of the kids is very powerful and impactful because of the slow, methodic way it unfolds. From there, the demises of each adult character is sort of sped up little by little as each new death occurs.

Sort of adding a real method-of-madness to the kids, who although they seem to be under the influence of outside forces, also plan, plot, and strategize their kills. The kids become alot more blood-thirsty as the film goes on, presenting alot of the usual character dilemmas within the film, such as "could you hurt a child?", and things of that nature. The deaths are very brutal and very bloody, so fans of the genres two big factors shouldn't have much to complain about in that regard.

There's also very graphic moments of bone-breaking, and violent attacks by the children which add alot of suspense and chills to the movie. The snow-covered and toy-covered atmosphere where the film is set also add a whole layer of danger to the overall movie, as the children have plenty of places to not only hide themselves, but also their victims! The movies one big weakness though is of course logic.

Which I don't fault Shankland for too much, but however...I do fault him for some. There are characters in the movie who do some very dumb and stupid things, which end up getting them or someone else killed. Moments that I just cannot stand, as I've seen so many of them in horror movies over the course of my life. One scene in particular where this is true, involves one of the children and a monkeybars outside playset.

I won't give too much away, but the victim of all this brought it on themselves for not being the brightest bulb of the bunch. The film concludes on a very terrifying and eerie note though. One of the best horror film endings I've seen in awhile mgiht I add. "The Children" is 80+ minutes of suspense-building terror and eventually evolves into all-out horror. It's a movie you simply should not miss!

Positives:Well filmed, many gory, bloody, and graphic scenes, the film does an excellent job of creating a feeling of menace and terror while building tons of suspense. Good performances, and a fantastic ending as well.

Negatives:Again, alot of the characters lacked common sense. You can guess the end result of that for yourselves.

Overall:Three and a half out of four stars.





( Talk about it in the Forums!)



( Back to the main page)