THE CRITIC-AL LIST
5 STAR FAB - 1 STAR RUBBISH

The Taking of Pelham 123
Antichrist
Terminator Salvation
Last House On The Left
Inglourious Basterds
The Children
Surveillance
Watchmen
The Unborn
The International
Friday The 13th
Franklyn
Push
Punisher:War Zone
The Uninvited
Amusement
The Good The Bad And
The Weird
Hush
Underworld
The RIse OF The Lycans
My Bloody Valentine
Bolt
Slumdog Millionaire

Directed by Tom Shankland. Starring Eva Birthistle, Eva Sayer, Jake Hathaway, Jeremy Sheffield, Raffiella Brooks, Stephen Campbell Moore, William Howes. Horror, UK, 84 min. Web Site

It was such a hit at FrightFest’s Halloween event that Vertigo Films asked us to host a series of screenings all over Great Britain. Now THE CHILDREN is coming to DVD and FrightFest has some great tie-in content and competitions.

Two families celebrating the New Year at a remote country house face unexplained horror in director Tom Shankland’s seasonal shocker. Forget IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, here’s ‘It’s a Wonderful Death’, as their young children suddenly turn into vicious killers for no apparent reason and start using their Christmas toys in terrifying ways. Could you kill your own child even after witnessing their mutilating mayhem is the distressing theme of Shankland’s terrific second suspense outing after WAZ. Cleverly staging its perverse dreads in broad-daylight, THE CHILDREN is an extraordinarily daring parental nightmare: the nursery colour palette and blood-on-snow artistry psychologically keying into the worst-case scenarios for maximum upset. VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED, SOPHIE’S CHOICE and DON’T LOOK NOW are all borrowed from. But it’s Shankland’s superb use of Alfred Hitchcock’s style of wringing epic tension from close-up moments that impresses most. Eva Birthistle’s wrenching emotional pain as she realises her tiny daughter really is trying to kill her. And Rachel Shelley’s mystified incomprehension when she learns the truth seconds from a bloody showdown.  Shankland also uses small distances (the galvanizing blood trail from snowman to play tent overhead shot) to hit home the chilling closeness of catastrophic events. The core shudders though emanate from the cold way the toddlers go about their gory business with a mix of innocence and odd malevolence. Great performances punch over the horrendous life-or-death dilemmas with a keenly felt taboo apprehension. Everyone steps up to the mark but it’s Hannah Tointon (HOLLYOAKS) who registers strongest as the moody teen wrongly blamed for leading the kids astray by guilt-ridden and perplexed adults. There are hints of explanations why the kids have suddenly morphed into murderers. Could it be alien infection (there is lots of subliminal space imagery), or the Chinese medicine?

Shankland deliberately keeps things murky to unsettle more. It takes a brave director to really go for broke with a horror film about fear of children and the twin taboos of parricide and filicide. But Shankland does it with a style and class that will surprise you over how effective that approach truly is.

Alan Jones

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