The Children (2008)

I can’t believe it has been over a month since I last put up a review here. Between life, computer troubles, and trying to get a challenge done, I’m afraid I neglected getting a review done here. But no more I say! If I am feeling better (I have been sick last few days), I will head out to the theater this weekend to take in a movie to review here. Until that time though, I wanted to get in at least one review. A couple of weeks ago I spent some of my Christmas money on a few DVD’s. One DVD I found that day was The Children. As soon as I saw it, I snatched it up. I had been hearing a lot about this film, and people that know me thought it would be a movie I would love. The Children is a British film that was released back in 2008, but just got a DVD release here in the U.S. late last year.

Elaine (Eva Birthistle) and Jonah (Stephen Campbell Moore) are visiting Elaine’s sister and her family. Chloe (Rachel Shelly) and Robbie (Jeremy Sheffield) have a big house out in the country, and have invited Elaine’s family out for the Christmas holidays. Elaine has three children, Casey (Hannah Tointon) who is a teenager, Miranda (Eva Sayer) is the middle child, and Paulie (William Howes) is the youngest. Chloe has two children of her own, Nicky (Jake Hathaway) is the oldest, and Leah (Raffiella Brooks) the youngest. The first half hour or so is about the two family’s hanging out together. They are outside a lot having snow ball fights, sledding, and everything else one would expect, when there is snow on the ground. There is some tension between Casey and her stepdad, and it is pretty obvious that neither really likes the other too well. From the start it appears that Robbie isn’t feeling well. With some rather strong hints, we are told that there is some kind of virus going around. As each child gets more and more sick, they seem to act out in more violent ways. Before you know it, the parents have to face the unthinkable.

The more I heard about The Children, the more I knew I had to see this movie. From the first time I watched the trailer, I was hooked! When there are killer children running around, there is always a good chance at least one of them will be taken out. I make no secret that one of my favorite sub genres in the horror world is children being killed. I don’t think it is an official sub genre, but it is for me! I will simply say that I wasn’t disappointed, and that I am glad I bought this movie in order to add it to my favorite sub genre. The Children starts off a little slow. I’m sure if you don’t like children at all, you will be annoyed by this movie. Most of the kids are pretty young, so they scream and yell a lot. The majority of the movie takes place outside and during the day. This was nice, since most horror films take place at night. Since there is plenty of sun light, you would think you would be able to see all that happens then, right? Not so fast on that. This is where The Children bothered me some. The way it is edited at times will leave us with a few quick shots of what is happening. I don’t really like this style of editing because it will often leave me a little confused as to what is going on. It didn’t always do that in this movie, but it did sometimes. Outside of that, I didn’t have any other real problems with it. Plenty of other people did though. The main complaint is that the parents don’t act realistically. Many said that they are just kids, little kids at that, so why don’t the parents just take the knife (or whatever it is they have that can cause harm) since they weigh a lot more than the kid. I understand the complaint, but at the same time I think it is slightly unfair. Taking something from a kid is often easier said than done, more so if said object is sharp. I didn’t feel the parents did anything stupid, or out of character. The way the story is set up is that the parents are never completely sure if it is their kids doing bad things, or someone else is.  The fact that they don’t knock their kids around from the start isn’t surprising, not everyone does that after all. We need to stop and think that no matter how much trouble some kids get into, they are still perfect little angles to their parents. Again, not all parents are that way, but some are. It is easy for us to say, “I would have knocked that kid into next year!”, because it is just a movie. A kid does something to you that hurts, but you know it is wrong to hurt the kid back. When it is your own kid, I’m sure it would be even harder. This is kind of what The Children does, it throws out the question of what would you do?

I was slightly disappointed by the effects. Not because they are bad, but because it hints at things more than actually showing them. We do get a pretty nasty head wound, and a certain object gets inserted into a body where it doesn’t belong. There is also a nasty broken leg wound. All were nicely done, but look quick because you might miss them if you blink. Things we don’t get to see are falling on a jagged piece of glass and broken wood. Ah the things that could have been. The acting was pretty good. I didn’t have any problems with the acting, but I was surprised by some of the characters. You think you have them figured out, when the story proves you wrong. My favorite of the group would be Hannah Tointon. I also liked Jeremy Sheffield.

Another thing that I noticed a lot of people took an issue with was the relationship between Robbie and Casey. A lot of people thought Robbie was being a creepy uncle for some reason. I felt that he was just treating Casey more like an adult, instead of a kid like her parents were doing. He talks to her normally, offers her a glass of wine, and even lets her smoke pot with him when he is caught doing so. Basically he is just being the cool uncle. I think people assume he is being creepy because his wife starts to wonder why her attractive niece is suddenly hanging around her husband all the time. There were a lot of complaints that this plot goes no where, but it actually does come to a conclusion. Just not one that I think most people were expecting, so they overlook it. In a way I am biased with The Children because of the subject matter. Even though we don’t get to see the deaths all that well, there were still some great ones there. A few times it had me grinning wide while saying something like, “Oh that was so cool.” If you have yet to rent this movie, find it now!

4 out of 5 You can be sure I will be watching this one again very soon