Written by Luke Barnes
Summary
A group of troubled children develop otherworldly abilities and use their powers for sinister means.
I forget who said it now, but a reviewer of this film that enjoyed it far more than I did said of it something to the extent of ‘finally a film for adults’, no doubt in a jab at the mindless blockbusters many don’t view as true cinema. However, I want to pose the idea that if this often excessive and unpleasant film is true cinema then maybe it isn’t such a good thing.
There are two examples I would like to point to that soured the film for me, both happen fairly early on and it only gets worse from there. The first is when a heavily disabled girl is tortured by our lead, played by Rakel Lenora Fløttum, and the second is when the lead and her friend shove a cat into a sack and then drop it from a height onto the ground. I understand that these elements are to show that the child is twisted and sadistic, but in my mind this is communicated to the audience in a needlessly tasteless way. A defence for this could be that it is a horror film so we can expect sights that sicken and disturb us, however, at least for me this crossed a line.
Animal abuse in film is always hard for me to watch.
Overall, this film was a bit too rich for my personal taste.
Pros.
The child actors do feel genuinely menacing
Cons.
The animal abuse
Bad taste
Pacing issues
The plot feels overly familiar
Some meandering subplots
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Another Millennial Reviewer 