The Children

2008

Action / Horror / Mystery / Thriller

22
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 50% · 17 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 50% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 5.9/10 10 19638 19.6K

supernatural slasher killer child christmas death of a child

Plot summary

A relaxing Christmas vacation turns into a terrifying fight for survival as the children begin to turn on their parents.

Director

Tom Shankland Photo
Tom Shankland

Top cast

Eva Birthistle Photo
Eva Birthistle as Elaine
Hannah Tointon Photo
Hannah Tointon as Casey
Jeremy Sheffield Photo
Jeremy Sheffield as Robbie
Rachel Shelley Photo
Rachel Shelley as Chloe
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
776.74 MB
1280*690
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 24 min
Seeds 5
1.56 GB
1920*1036
English 5.1
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 24 min
Seeds 12

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Siamois 7 / 10

A parent's worse nightmare...

The premise of this movie is indeed real, primal horror. During the holidays, a family reunion turns into a madness when children become increasingly disturbed, due to what looks like a mysterious illness."Creepy kids" have been done a number of times in cinema but what separates this latest entry from many that came before it is the feeling that these kids are still kids. Certainly disturbed and not totally themselves but not entirely evil. Cruel but not zombies, mind controlled or aliens. There is still fear and fragility, which makes them a lot scarier for viewers, especially parents.Adding to the horror is that when the parents stand up for themselves against the kids, these acts of resistance are "unsatisfying" to us, unlike other movies of the genre. That is, you do remain conflicted as a viewer instead of the typical Hollywood trash. And *that* is what horror is about.The story is good, well-paced with a suitably tensed escalation of the menace the children represent. The characters coping with this threat (a group of adults and a teenager) are believable instead of walking clichés.On the downside, the movie has a definite low-budget feel to it. I was surprised that Tom Shankland would direct something like this after his previous work, the polished horror/thriller Waz. A low budget plus a lot of kid actors mean that corners were cut. The film would certainly have benefited from more takes. A lot more takes, in fact. The adult actors are underwhelming and the script could have used another pass or two to make it more compelling from start to end. There are still two or three very memorable sequences in the movie, such as the one following the first body's disappearance. But overall I think Shankland will cringe at a lot of scenes here. For instance, one character spends some great deal of time with a serious injury but the result on camera is completely unbelievable.So what we are left with is an indie movie with a lot of heart and that does a lot of things well. It is extremely courageous in its treatment. It offers something good and refreshing. And it could have been a masterpiece with slightly more budget. I'm giving this a well-deserved 6.As a complement to this film and to see the "other side of the coin", I strongly suggest watching Lars E. Jacobson's "Baby Blues" immediately before or after "The Children".
Reviewed by Sandcooler 7 / 10

Creepy and unsettling

I wasn't expecting that much from this movie, because it all just seemed very familiar. Evil children turning on their parents who are too dumb to notice anything's wrong until it's too late, there are at least a dozen movies like that. Combine that with an incredibly uninspired title and you get a movie that just sits on my shelf for years.Unjustly, because as unoriginal and predictable this movie is...it's also really freightening! The scary atmosphere is done really well, and it helps that you don't actually see the children kill for the first two acts. It's all in the power of suggestion, and in the feeling of dread you get from every scene. The child actors are also great, their blank, unemotional stares send shivers down my spine. The plot follows the creepy kid formula beat by beat, but it's not a problem. Just take the obligatory first kill, the one that always looks like it's an accident. That scene is executed perfectly, really unnerving. The movie never really drops the ball from then on.There's nothing ground-breaking about "The Children", there's not even anything interesting to the plot. It's very much style over substance, but the style is great and that's enough for me to recommend it.
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