by Marco Fiori

Created on: April 02, 2009   Last Updated: April 03, 2009

What if the apple of your eye came after you with a knife? Would you fight back or would you put it down to childish ignorance, and attempt to coax them out of it? The Children plays on such an issue with an unsettling outcome. Tom Shankland's directorial eye combines the harshness of winter with the possibility of violence lurking amid humans that have yet to discover right from wrong.

The plot's your archetypal horror affair. Semi-perfect family get together for a Christmas holiday in a remote house in the British countryside. There's the pervy uncle Robbie (Sheffield), the misfit teenager Casey (Tointon) who enjoys wearing miniskirts despite the fact it's snowing, and various child actors / actresses possessing effective vacant stares. The children easily out-act the adults, who resort to melodramatic screams, fake tears and an over indulgence in the dear-caught-in-headlights' facial expression. Character development is limited which effectively restricts your compassion for the cast.

The Omen showed us that there's something intrinsically terrifying about children and Shankland is keen to take advantage of it. He keeps the audience on edge while simultaneously developing the plot. We keep expecting something to happen, but we're constantly being misdirected. When we finally realise something is going wrong, it's too late. There's no explanation, just the sick feeling that it's not going to be such an enjoyable holiday after all. Children's imaginary games suddenly take on a new shape. The subjectivity of The Children heightens the anxiety and gives you the impression that the film can hold its own.

Then the film goes Hollywood and reverts back to a clich heavy hostility. There's the mum who falls over, the parent who can't seem to understand that a child holding a knife means business, and your fair share of shots where blood taints the virgin-white-snow. Add to that frequent sequences of lite-gore and the Saw / Hostel crowd are covered. The sense of terror begins with disconcerting child-tantrums and ends up with a group of mini-murderers who excel at cringe-worthy violence that does everything but terrify.

You'll be made to jump, but by cheap cuts that surprise, not scare. The score does it job and the camera work ranges from prophetic to clumsy. We're treated to some inspired shots, but at the same time flaunted intentional subjectivity that doesn't show enough of what's going on. The imagination is a powerful tool, but you need a source to visualize from. Throw in an in-fashion' bleak ending and you've got a piece of cinema that feels as though it took a wrong turn.

3/5.

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