Customer Reviews

The Children [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I saw this film a few months ago and it immediately became my new favorite "evil children" movie, but also one of my favorite recent horrors. And it gets huge bonus points for being actually frightening. This review is of the US Region-free Blu-ray release from Lionsgate/Ghost House Underground, released today, Oct. 6, 2009.

The performances are uniformly excellent, which is crucial for a horror film to be scary. Special kudos for Mr. Shankland for coaxing genuinely creepy performances out of very young children. See the recent The Omen remake to see how not to do it. ;)

This film is not for fans of jump scares or fast-paced editing. Well, to be honest, there are a couple brief flash-cut editing moments, but they are thankfully brief, and I can see the point to them, so they are forgiven. My point was, this is a slow burner that takes its time to establish the setting, characters and mood. And as a real horror fan, I can appreciate this deliberation as true scares are built from those building blocks. The horrors that do happen, in time, are that much more effective when they do.

The picture on the BD looks great to me, but I'm not a real A/V geek, so you can look elsewhere to discuss crushed blacks. ;) There are a wealth of special features here, too, but noticeably absent is a director's commentary, alas.

On a side note, what was wrong with the fantastic cover art of the UK release? And why does Ghost House feel the need to plaster their graphics all over more prominently than the film title?

Anyway, highly recommended for horror fans who are tired of cheap jump scares. But parents beware, as the themes here are truly disturbing.

These lines of direct to DVD horror flicks to come along recently, the After Dark Horrorfest and more recently Ghost House Underground, usually feature a diamond in the rough among their various lineups. British import The Children is by and far such a film in this year's Ghost House Underground lineup, and it may in fact be the ballsiest horror film you'll come across right now. A family get together turns deadly when a virus infects the young children, which subsequently causes them to attack and murder the adults. As they fight for survival, it becomes clear that director Tom Shankland (The Killing Gene) is quite simply going for the throat of the viewer, as he pulls no punches in presenting some shocking scenes of brutality and bloodletting. Not to mention the fact that the film is actually suspenseful and it features a simply dynamite ending, The Children winds up being a blood-curdling shocker. The film's editing may be occasionally sloppy, but regardless of that, The Children is definitely worth your time if you're a horror fan. Be on the lookout for the gorgeous Hannah Tointon, who may in fact be a star in the making.

I've seen both Paul Andrew Williams The Cottage and Tom Shanklands W Delta Z and nothing in those films would have been harbinger for The Children. Its been compared to Who Can Kill a Child and in some ways the comparison is apt as it involves children slowly succumbing to some unknown cause that turns them violent towards adults. Who Can Kill a Child was more involved in creating suspense in the unknown and questioning the idea of violence against children. The Children like the recent Grace more or less involves parents and their children and the lengths people will go to protect their offspring even when those kids might have set up a trap for an adult invovling sleds and gardening equipment. This might be a big statement but its one of the best British horror films since The Descent.
How does it achieve this? It simply sets up its situation and its story. Two families come together before Christmas carrying their children to a remote area in the woods. Slowly with one event the children start showing signs of sickness. The parents however are too self absorbed in their own problems complicated by teenager Casey whos acting rebellious flirting with her uncle and trying to hide a tatoo from her parents. Slowly though things begin to change. There are hints but things are never clear until the first fatality. Then the adults are scrambling around looking for their children while Casey begins to suspect the truth trying to warn adults who only want to protect their children even if those kids are coming at them with a pair of scissors.
The children as it is is a slow burn of a film that is more about tension and suspense than gore. The gore is still there in flashes and glimpses. The kills are brutal and effective as they're happening to characters who are well defined and acted. And unlike Who Can Kill a Child I'll admit even the violence to the little tykes was unnerving without feeling exploitative. This is an excellent film a great addition to the new Ghost House Underground series. Even if you didn't like last years releases do check this one out.
For the price you do get a great release for a budget. The audio is terrific while the visuals a bit grainy in the opening do improve and make one of the better discs from Lionsgate. To go with the film theres also quiet a bevy of featurettes that are better than most. All in all a recommended disc though I'm more for the movie than anything else.

These lines of direct to DVD horror flicks to come along recently, the After Dark Horrorfest and more recently Ghost House Underground, usually feature a diamond in the rough among their various lineups. British import The Children is by and far such a film in this year's Ghost House Underground lineup, and it may in fact be the ballsiest horror film you'll come across right now. A family get together turns deadly when a virus infects the young children, which subsequently causes them to attack and murder the adults. As they fight for survival, it becomes clear that director Tom Shankland (The Killing Gene) is quite simply going for the throat of the viewer, as he pulls no punches in presenting some shocking scenes of brutality and bloodletting. Not to mention the fact that the film is actually suspenseful and it features a simply dynamite ending, The Children winds up being a blood-curdling shocker. The film's editing may be occasionally sloppy, but regardless of that, The Children is definitely worth your time if you're a horror fan. Be on the lookout for the gorgeous Hannah Tointon, who may in fact be a star in the making.

A nice refreshing change of pace from all the torture terrors. Just nice, fun, homicidal children. Actually, this is a great little chiller because it had a few ingredients other horror films seem to lack these days: real suspense, eerie soundtrack, and a really good sense of tension. Quite enjoyable for the thriller-lover. recommended. (and a good excuse to skip the next famly function or join planned parenthood).

This dvd is has a excellent print of the children. It's a decent horror movie that is creepy and low budget. The gore effects are quite good though. I don't agree at all that this is a terrible movie. In fact it's a quite horrible idea that your kids would kill you at that age. And this explains how parents would be easy prey for killer kids. They wouldn't believe it till it was too late. The acting is quite decent and this british film has nothing to be ashamed about. It's hard for me to rate a decent horror movie badly when it's low budget. What do viewers expect when they buy low budget horror? Masterpieces of cinema? A few become that but to be fair how many A movies are bad and they have lots of money? The violence when it comes is pretty graphic and this movie is not for children. It takes about half the movie for the violence to start but who cares? Movies tell a story and not every horror movie can be fast moving action fests. Those are fine too; but movies are NOT video games and I don't expect insant gratification from them. So for me I enjoyed this movie and was creeped out by it quite nicely. I just wish the other movie of the same name the 1980 cult hit 'the children' was on a dvd with this nice a print. That one is pure low budget cult flick heaven.

I just watched "The Children" and I am in awe..I was expecting it to be decent but this film way exceeded my expectations.

I will give a brief synopsis because you can read the synopsis anywhere you look up the film.

It's New Years Eve, and two families are meeting to celebrate the holiday together, both families have two kids.One of the families has a teenage daughter as well...The kids start getting sick then all bets are off..They start to become vicious and evil.The camera work is genius and I was so unsettled and jumpy during the movie that I had to take a xanax..and I am a hard core horror lover..It was the suspense and the way the scenes were put together and intertwined that made it excel.

For a movie with such young kids in the production they spared no violence or hard core scenes.

I might expect they would soften it a bit but they didn't .Kudos' for that as well.

I was entertained from start to finish and I mean the last frame.

Think 1981's Bloody Birthday with gore no cheese and great acting.

This is definitely a film I will watch again and probably again .

The Children is a brilliant, low-budget, intimate horror from the UK that delivers its shocks and sense of dread in bright winter sunlight, in dazzlingly lit rooms full of glittering Xmas cheer, inside a beautiful country house. It amounts to a superb evocation of family breakdown in the face of crisis (I disagree with a reviewer who wanted a more explanatory history of the virus; even the microscope-eye-view of the multiplying viral culprit was unnecessary). The irritating young upper-middle-class professionals get their come-uppance, as it were, for paying so little attention to their children and are compelled (by their unwillingness to face up to their own realities) to blame one another for the domestic apocalypse breeding around them and specifically to accuse the astute and intuitive Casey, the teenage daughter who IS paying attention and sees exactly what's happening, but whose burgeoning sexuality is more than the "adults" want to acknowledge (especially Chloe, who doesn't like the dubious attention her husband is giving Casey). Hannah Tointon's hypnotising performance as Casey is the anchor of the movie - she's clearly going to be a major screen actress in years to come. But all the performances are great, although a lot of women viewers (not to mention we gay men) will be disappointed that mega-hunky Jeremy Sheffield (SPOILER COMING UP!) meets such an early and horrifying end. Ultimately the movie suggests that the "adults" are the ones behaving like untrustworthy children, while the actual kids are in the thrall of a kind of viral anomie and bewilderment that can only express itself in rage at the world they've been born into. A deeply unsettling and stunningly achieved movie. And it's full of brief but telling details - a viewer on IMDB has observed, for example, that Casey's "foetal" tattoo is a reproduction of the cover art for Sigur Ros's 'Agaetis Byrjun'.
One caveat re the US DVD - is it just me, or are some of the Special Features promised on the box - 'Snow Set design'/ 'Inside Tom Shankland's Lair'/ 'Micro video featuring In This Moment' - not repeat NOT among the actual Special Features available on the disc????

THE CHILDREN stands out as one of the better entries from the recent revival in British Horror. A family's idyllic trip to their country getaway in the snow ends in bloodshed when the children are overcome by a mysterious illness that causes them to attack and kill their parents. It starts off slowly, with what seems like a series of accidents, but things quickly take a terrifying turn for the worst. Director Tom Shankland understands how to produce old-fashioned scares using a slow, creeping suspense and an elevated mood. After a slow and calculated build, the action is unleashed at a lightning pace, with many horrifying moments along the way. Shankland has found a group of children that are so sweet and innocent in appearance that it seems impossible that they would be able to do anyone any harm. It is therefore that much more alarming when they do begin playing their deadly games. While the film does feature some shocking gore, it is only used to punctuate its moments of suspense. The bright red of the blood contrasted against the pure white snow is also quite disturbing. THE CHILDREN shares much more in common with Serrador's WHO CAN KILL A CHILD than it does with many of the American-made killer children pictures, which typically give a lighter tone to the taboo theme of child murder. Shankland has created a dark, bloody, and mean-spirited survival film with a hopelessly downbeat ending.

-Carl Manes
I Like Horror Movies

When viewing a horror film I like to put myself in the place of the main Characters for that "what if" feeling. The Children to me was very well made and super creepy! Celebrating the Holidays Two Sisters and their Husbands along with their Children gather together. It is not long before we discover...Something is wrong with the Children. Good special effects and decent acting make this worth watching. I have enjoyed some, not all, of the Ghost House Films. This one is a keeper I must say. To give you an idea of my taste I recently enjoyed: The Crazies, Eden Lake Etc. The Children is very entertaining and not super fast paced but enough to keep you interested. Thanks for reading :)