The Children – Blu-ray Review
The Film:
The horror genre will take anything seemingly innocent, and turn it into evil, so it should come as no surprise that some filmmakers have used children as the forces of evil. Evil kids or bad seeds, if you will, have given us some spooky stories to make us weary of those little bastards, but most filmmakers really don’t push this idea. In Tom Shankland’s The Children, he falls victim to that notion.
A lot of praise has descended upon the film, and I’m curious as to why. Certainly, Shankland is a smart director, having a gifted eye for composition, and understanding that the set-up is crucial to the success of a film. There are many beautiful shots, and some well staged ones. One of the hardest things to do is to take something that is viewed as “good”, and make it evil, and evil enough to chill us. Shankland does a splendid job of framing scenes with certain angles and with the help of lighting, takes these innocent kids, and infuses evil into them. That’s tough to do, especially since he never really messes with their appearance.
Where the film stumbles is in the follow through. Everything is set up nicely, but the parents seem helplessly weak against the attacking kids. They also make numerous dumbfounded decisions, enough to irritate you. It’s frustrating because Shankland almost has the balls to do what most filmmakers or studios would not allow: violence on children. We hear enough about terrible tragedies on the nightly news, and I do not support violent acts on children, but it was a pleasant surprise to see at certain times the parents maiming the attacking kids. Logically, yes, one would defend themselves against any attackers, either man, woman, or child, so at least he allowed some realism in the film.
But back to the characters, and even with my gripes on their decision making at times, you don’t really like any of them. They’re kind of schmucks. Shankland presents us with two families, each with their own ideologies on how to raise their kids. One set is passive, the other, while not aggressive by any means, corrects them if they get out of hand. This will include a spanking or two. He has, like I’ve said a few times, a good set-up, but it all falls through his hands like sand. The duality of their child raising perscpectives should lead to a huge coin flip of what to do with these evil kids (that origin of why they’re evil is never explained either). The bicker a lot, and point fingers, but never realize the most obvious reason of the terror? Hmm.It all kind of leads up to nothing much, sadly, because there were some intriguing elements in The Children that needed to be carried out a bit farther. Even with some rare violence on children, Shankland still didn’t have the gumption to go where the idea needed to go. More violence? No, he just needed to polish up some ideas.
The Blu-ray:
Audio/Video: Lionsgate releases this film in the Ghost House Underground (Raimi studio) with a fine looking 1080p transfer that is quite nice. While there is some softness, details are mostly high, colors pop out at you, and it all leads to a decent high def experience. As like many horror films, we’re treated to a really nice DTS track that packs the appropriate bass punch, as well as an overall nice surround activity.
All extras are in standard definition.
Making of The Children: This is a bit different than most making of featurettes, as the director and the crew discuss their set-up for an upcoming scene in interviews, followed by the filming footage. It acts as an almost how-to guide, so tech heads might like this more, as casual viewers might want to skip.
Working with the Children: They say working with kid actors and animals are the two toughest things to do, but it all seems find here as this piece talks to the little people on their involvement.
Shooting on Location: This short piece has Shankland talking about why he chose a certain location, and we meet the family who owns the house in which they filmed in. It’s okay, but nothing substantial.
Deleted Scenes: A couple of interesting scenes left out of the film, but even if they were reinserted, I would still have issues with the overall film like I did. The first one is pretty good, though.
Paul Hyett talks Prosthetics: The make-up FX guy talks about the various bits of violence.
Snow Set Design: The film needed snow, and this piece shows how they brought in snow for the film’s shoot. Kind of cool, really.
On set Lair: Shankland had a private little cottage, and he tours it for us, showing us plans for the film, and art.
Trailers round out the extras.
Conclusion: The Children isn’t quite the ultimate bad seed film, but it with it’s flaws, it’s okay at best. Lionsgate gives it a solid Blu-ray, though, making it an easy rental.
The Film: Rating: 
The Blu-ray: Rating:
