A biology teacher, Tom(Lewis Fiander)and his pregnant wife Evelyn(Prunella Ransome)are on vacation when they make the mistake of boating to the island of Almanzora where the children have turned homicidal slaughtering the entire adult populace..some form of insane hysteria has turned then into soulless monsters who seem calm and gentle only to storm their prey like a pack of wolves. Surrounded in the desolate village, the couple must figure out a way to get off the island, but how can they when there are children all over the place? In this film, there's a significant importance in Evelyn's pregnancy..
Despite not liking the opening historical montage of the effects of children from past war, poverty & starvation thanks to adults(this kind of anti-war propaganda you can save for street corner protest marches..I'm pretty sure the director was patting himself on the back quite proud of himself), this is quite an intense, unsettling shocker where kids who look so innocent and sweet will turn on a dime with their weaponry, all smiles as they swarm in packs ready to destroy. I liked the idea of shooting during the brightness of day..gloom and doom bathed in the hot sun as our couple sweats it out both physically and mentally. A word of warning..the film has horrifying displays of child violence and some scenes, artistically and stylishly presented, are incredibly unpleasant which could disturb those who have a problem with that sort of thing. I like what the cinematographer mentioned in an interview I watched..he pointed out that they looked at the film as a cross between "The Birds" and "Night of the Living Dead", for the exception that these are not birds or the undead..they are children. That moral conflict of the title is the central power of this horror film, I believe. The idea of killing a child in order to survive..it's quite unthinkable, in a sense;yet, that's the driving force of this twisted premise. The film builds the eventual showdown between Tom and those damn evil kids, allowing our couple a temporary reprieve as we wait out when the attack will commence. The ending has a strong sense of irony..evil spreads and it's hard for others to not be impacted.
Despite not liking the opening historical montage of the effects of children from past war, poverty & starvation thanks to adults(this kind of anti-war propaganda you can save for street corner protest marches..I'm pretty sure the director was patting himself on the back quite proud of himself), this is quite an intense, unsettling shocker where kids who look so innocent and sweet will turn on a dime with their weaponry, all smiles as they swarm in packs ready to destroy. I liked the idea of shooting during the brightness of day..gloom and doom bathed in the hot sun as our couple sweats it out both physically and mentally. A word of warning..the film has horrifying displays of child violence and some scenes, artistically and stylishly presented, are incredibly unpleasant which could disturb those who have a problem with that sort of thing. I like what the cinematographer mentioned in an interview I watched..he pointed out that they looked at the film as a cross between "The Birds" and "Night of the Living Dead", for the exception that these are not birds or the undead..they are children. That moral conflict of the title is the central power of this horror film, I believe. The idea of killing a child in order to survive..it's quite unthinkable, in a sense;yet, that's the driving force of this twisted premise. The film builds the eventual showdown between Tom and those damn evil kids, allowing our couple a temporary reprieve as we wait out when the attack will commence. The ending has a strong sense of irony..evil spreads and it's hard for others to not be impacted.