One of the single most terrifying concepts in the world is evil children.
Children epitomize–or at least are supposed to epitomize–the concept of innocence in the world. And the thought of something turning children into murderous sociopathic little monsters is chilling beyond all reason. The thought of having to defend yourself against children inherently makes your mind rebel. Children are to be protected, not to be protected FROM!
And that’s exactly the trope that’ll be riding us in The Children, last, and ultimately best, of the newest round of the Ghost House Underground series. Lions Gate sent a copy on and it’s a downright peach.
Basically, it’s about what I said–it’s a family Christmas celebration, and all seems about as normal as can be when the kids, for reasons that are utterly unexplained, turn into murderous psychopaths. And they’re utterly gleeful about the transformation, too.
What follows is about an hour of harrowing, terrifying mayhem as the children go from normal fun loving tykes to monsters that make the children from Village of the Damned look like an ad for Romper Room.
Frankly, I cant remember the last time I saw the “killer kid” trope played this well. Orphan? Nah, not hardly. These kids would eat that crazy little tot ALIVE. It’s a whole new standard for killer kids run amok. They’re devious, they’re careful, they plot like…like…well, probably like ROMULANS, I can’t even get them an earthly equivalent.
And when you put these horrendous little child nightmares in a blender with some oblivious adults and one rebellious teenage girl who gets the picture WAY before anyone else, the end result is a horror flick on par with some of the greats. Granted, the explanations as to WHY this all is happening is flimsier than wet tissue in a windstorm, but hey! It’s still pretty creepy!
The Screenhead Ten Scale’s already pricing shotguns and hands up a whomping eight out of ten for being some pure-T horrendous horror filmmaking, guaranteed to scare just about anyone. Watch this on a winter night with someone you love and watch them hit the birth control.
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