Writer/director Tom Shankland (‘Waz’) brings us a bleak wintery tale of a group of children who not content with loving parents, Christmas time treats and all other worldly goodness succumb to a strange illness and turn on their parents in a gruesome manner.
A yuletide family get together in the country starts to go awry when the youngest child Paulie starts to feel poorly and this sickness seems to have an odd effect not only on him but soon spreads amongst the rest of the children. Following a few minor incidents things start to go very awry when one parent is killed in a seemingly accidental manor.
The teenage daughter Casey (played by Hollyoaks’ uber-sexy Hannah Tointon, who achingly resembles Rose McGowan here) is being blamed for most of the bloody happenings mostly due to being in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, it’s not long before this unfounded finger pointing becomes clearly misguided when the group of Damian’s run amok on a blood spilling spree.
Interestingly the movie seems to deal with a lot of notable imagery and verbal referencing to child birth and abortion which seems wholly intentional. Little to nothing is known about the cause of the illness or indeed the source, something which although adds to the uncertain nature of the movie it does ultimately become a little frustrating for the viewer.
OVERALL SUMMARY
All in all I was impressed with ‘The Children’. It’s a very unnerving little Brit flick that may especially leave parents themselves squirming in their seats. For what in lacks in substantial explanation it makes up for in shock and uneasiness.
