The Children (2008 film)

The Children
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Tom Shankland
Screenplay by	Tom Shankland
Story by	Paul Andrew Williams
Produced by	Allan Niblo James Richardson
Starring	Eva Birthistle Hannah Tointon Stephen Campbell Moore
Cinematography	Nanu Segal
Edited by	Tim Murrell
Music by	Stephen Hilton
Production companies	Screen West Midlands BBC Films Aramid Entertainment Barnsnape Films
Distributed by	Vertigo Films
Release date	5 December 2008 (2008-12-05)
Running time	85 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

The Children is a 2008 British horror thriller film set around the New Year holiday directed by Tom Shankland, based on a story by Paul Andrew Williams and starring Eva Birthistle and Hannah Tointon. The film premiered on 5 December 2008.

Plot

Casey, a rebellious teenage girl, is travelling with her mother Elaine, her stepfather Jonah, and her two half-siblings, Miranda and Paulie, to spend the New Year with Elaine's older sister, Chloe. Chloe, her husband Robbie, and their two children, Nicky and Leah, welcome their visitors. Outside the house, Paulie vomits near the bushes, which his mother believes is due to being carsick.

As the night progresses, Nicky and Leah also begin to show symptoms of an illness. Leah coughs up some black bile, which is shown magnified on her pillow, where strange forms of bacteria is proliferating exponentially. As everyone goes to bed, the family cat, Jinxie, goes missing. Casey, back at the woods, calls her friend and makes plans to escape and attend a party, but she's startled by Jinxie snarling. However, she is unable to find the cat. By the next day, all of the children have become seemingly pale and infected. Casey phones her friend who promises to meet her at 2 p.m. The children and men are playing in the snow, and one of the children has Jinxie's collar in the play tent. Whilst Jonah and Robbie are having a discussion about TCM, Paulie shoves a sled downhill that hits Chloe's ankle, causing her to drop tea all over Jonah, scalding him. Jonah is angry enough to spank Paulie. Robbie goes for a smoke break in the greenhouse, and Casey joins him. He sees her tattoo and asks about it. It is a fetus, the umbilical cord connected to her belly button, as represents "the abortion that got away" Casey herself. Chloe interrupts them soon after. At dinner, Chloe mentions the tattoo, upsetting Elaine and embarrassing Casey. Miranda suddenly has a violent outburst, scratching Chloe and ruining the food. While Jonah tries to deal with Miranda upstairs, Robbie takes the rest of the children outside to play in the snow. As Robbie is sledding downhill, Nicky places a garden rake in the sled's path, which slices open Robbie's head on impact. The children scream, drawing the attention of Casey and the rest of the adults as Robbie bleeds out in the snow. Elaine phones an ambulance, but Robbie quickly dies from his injuries. The children then run off into the forest.

Casey attempts to find the children in the forest, and she finds Leah sobbing and coughing, but then as she gets closer, Leah starts laughing and is holding a knife, cutting into something. Casey, frightened, slips and falls into a puddle of vomit, as she screams. Meanwhile, Jonah tries to call the emergency services, but they are held up by the extremely snowy roads.

Paulie attacks Jonah with a knife, slicing his arm, then runs off before luring Elaine to a climbing frame and breaking her leg. Casey rescues her and they seek refuge in the greenhouse which is attacked by the kids with rocks. Paulie crawls inside and attempts to stab them but is fended off by Casey. Meanwhile, Chloe finds Robbie's body inside the children's play tent where a baby doll is shoved within his cut-open stomach; she is then attacked by Leah. Casey saves her, but Chloe panics, blaming Casey for what is happening before fleeing into the house. Casey returns to the greenhouse and saves Elaine who in turn saves Casey by dragging Paulie's hood, causing him to fall backwards onto a protruding glass shard, killing him. Jonah finds Paulie dead and attempts to hide him from Chloe. The group enter the house where Chloe accuses Casey and Elaine of going insane when Casey says Elaine killed Paulie only in order to save her.

Jonah and Chloe abandon them in anger and leave to find the kids. Casey starts barricading the house, after convincing her mother that the kids are attacking them due to their sickness. Meanwhile, Jonah and Chloe are separated in the woods, where Chloe is soon reunited with her kids, but Leah stabs her in the eye with a crayon, killing her. Casey finds Miranda beating Jinxie's corpse in the bedroom and throttles her; Miranda manipulates Jonah into believing that Casey attacked them, so he slams Casey into a wall and locks her in the bedroom before dragging Elaine roughly back to the couch. Miranda removes the splint Casey made for Elaine's leg, before running to Jonah before they drive off. In the house, as Elaine attempts to drag herself upstairs to free Casey, Leah and Nicky seemingly enter through the pet door. Elaine manages to reach Casey's bedroom door as the children catch up, Nicky holding his mother's earring. Elaine is attacked by Leah and Nicky but is unable to hurt them due to them being just children, so relents to them as they attempt to cut a wooden doll into her uterus.

Casey escapes by breaking a door panel and she kills Nicky, saving Elaine while Leah flees into the woods. Casey and Elaine flee the house and down the forest road find Jonah dead by Chloe's crashed car. As Casey investigates Jonah's corpse, Miranda suddenly attacks her. Elaine rams her with the car, killing Miranda and saving Casey. They suddenly notice a crowd of various infected kids, including Leah, emerge from the woods. As Elaine had just noticed Casey vomiting in the woods, she's unsure whether to let Casey accompany her. Ultimately, as the children encroach upon them, she's unable to leave Casey behind and they drive off. As Elaine panics, Casey, unresponsive, starts staring into space like the infected children did and the film ends leaving the audience wondering if Casey became infected as well.

Cast

• Eva Birthistle as Elaine
• Stephen Campbell Moore as Jonah
• Hannah Tointon as Casey
• Eva Sayer as Miranda
• William Howes as Paulie
• Rachel Shelley as Chloe
• Jeremy Sheffield as Robbie
• Rafiella Brookes as Leah
• Jake Hathaway as Nicky

Locations

The film was shot in Cookhill Priory, a former Cistercian nunnery, and in the nearby villages of Cookhill and Alcester in the English counties of Worcestershire and Warwickshire, respectively.

Box office

The film opened at 10th place in the UK, grossing only £98,205 at 132 cinemas. In the weeks after its release, the film dropped to 13th place and then again to 22nd place.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 76% based on reviews from 17 critics. The site's consensus reads: "Unsettling and spine-chilling low-budget British horror, with effective and disturbing scares".

The film opened to generally positive reviews from UK critics. The Guardian writer Phelim O'Neill said, "the violence is skilfully enough executed to make you think you see much more than you actually do and the fundamentally disturbing and creepy aspects about such random and unpredictable child-centric mayhem are always present, no matter how ludicrously intense and darkly humorous things get". Time Out gave the film four out of five stars and said "This taboo-shattering movie taps in to primal fears about the unknow-ability of children, its blood-stained virgin snow and insidious terror recalling cruel fairy tales and ‘demon child’ movies such as The Omen."

In the United States reviewers were equally positive. Bloody Disgusting said "The Children has it all and is guaranteed to please even the hardest to satisfy horror fan." IGN said of the film "The Children is a flawlessly mounted horror film that knows exactly how to scare its audience."

Awards

Director Tom Shankland won the Special Mention Award at the Fantasia International Film Festival in 2009 for his professional approach to the children actors in the film.

External links

• The Children at IMDb