The Children (2008)

A band of rosy-cheeked children go on a rampage in this British horror flick from director Tom Shankland. The film opens with Elaine (Eva Birthistle) bringing her husband, Jonah (Stephen Campbell Moore), and their three children to celebrate New Year's with her sister Chloe (Rachel Shelley). Chloe is married with two children of her own, and her family lives in a gorgeous cabin set deep in the woods. Soon the cozy home is filled with scampering kids and Casey (Hannah Tointon), Elaine's sullen teenager. As the families reunite and settle in, hidden tensions and secret flirtations pass back and forth between every ...
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one 16 and older, while the children shriek and play. When Elaine's son Paulie (William Howes) gets sick, she chalks it up to car sickness, but by the next day, he appears to be worse. Soon the other children begin to act strangely as well. When a fatal accident occurs, everything falls into chaos, and accusations fly among the adults. The real killers are soon revealed, and some truly gory (colored pencil through the eye, anyone?) murder scenes quickly follow.

While some might find the film's premise never quite makes it out of camp territory, it cannot be argued that Shankland doesn't do a solid job of presenting some truly interesting, well-rounded characters. Despite the blatant violence of some scenes, much of the film is full of subtle, mood-setting shots. These quiet, unsettling images--branches cracking with ice, the blank stare of a child's doll--give the movie its real creep out factor. Size three pink Wellingtons have never looked so sinister.
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As directed by Brit Tom Shankland, this outing constitutes a chilling installment in the subgenre of horror films about evil children running amok. The tale unfolds in contemporary England during a snowy, late December, with a young married couple, Jonah (Stephen Campbell Moore) and Elaine (Eva Birthistle), journeying into the country to spend New Year's with immediate family -- Elaine's sister Chloe (Rachel Shelley) and brother-in-law Robbie (Jeremy Sheffield). Accompanying the adults are three children: Casey (Hannah Tointon), Elaine's adolescent daughter from a first marriage (who resents being dragged along),...
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and youngsters Paulie (William Howes) and Miranda (Eva Sayer), her children with Jonah (who can't wait to see their cousins Nicky and Leah). Upon arrival at Robbie and Chloe's home, ominous and increasingly bizarre events begin to transpire: Paulie grows visibly ill, Leah and Nicky begin slipping into menacing and threatening behavior toward everyone, capped off by an ugly accident that they engineer involving Robbie -- an incident that pushes him to the brink of death and ends with a gruesome act of carnage committed by the children. Soon, Elaine realizes that Paulie is infected with a bizarre, zombie-like virus that he is systematically spreading to the other children, and promptly decides to ameliorate the situation by taking violence into her own hands and ending the boy's young life. Little does she realize, however, just how pervasive the virus has grown.
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Twee gezinnen komen bij elkaar om vakantie te vieren. Het begint als een spannende vakantie voor Elaine en Jonah, maar als de kinderen van het gezin hun ouders zonder duidelijke reden aanvallen, verandert het al snel in een nachtmerrie.

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