The Making of 'The Children' (2009 Video) User Reviews

Average making of documentary.

[poolandrews · 4/10 · 24 March 2012]

The Making of 'The Children' is a special feature on the US released Blu-ray/DVD of the British horror film The Children (2008) that runs for about twenty minutes & as the name suggests is a making of documentary.

At twenty minutes this is longer than some of the featurettes around but there's nothing that substantial about it, it focuses entirely on the production side of The Children & not the pre or post aspect like where the idea for the film came from or it's influences or how it was received after it was released. I suppose if your a fan of The Children then this will probably satisfy you to an extent, it features little segments on the filming of the sledge ride where Robbie is killed, the scene where Elaine falls off a child's climbing frame, the greenhouse fight & the ending where Elaine kills her kid. There are lots of behind the scenes footage, some talking head interview snippets & director Tom Shankland chimes in every so often as well.

Nothing of any great interest or any great insight is learnt from this but as a basic promotional piece to accompany the film it serves a purpose.

The Making of 'The Children' is really only for fans of the film, I couldn't see anyone else gaining much from it & even then it's quite basic & will probably leave you wanting to know more. Acceptable but nothing memorable.

"What are we about to do?" . . . "Squish me."

[charlytully · 7/10 · 27 April 2011]

This exchange between the uncredited\unseen "making of" interviewer and little Eva Sayer (who plays Miranda) exemplifies the light-hearted approach apparently taken by even the youngest cast members toward filming Tom Shankland's allegorical preview of the coming inter-generational warfare now looming around the corner in real life, THE CHILDREN. In a literal sense, Eva could be referring to how a scene was about to be filmed in which her screen mom, Eva Birthistle (who plays Elaine) was about to plow into her Miranda character with the family Volvo station wagon, violently pinning her against a nearby SUV. But in the more important, predictive sense, Eva no doubt was referring to the burgeoning national debt about to smother herself and other members of her cohort Millenial Generation throughout the industrialized world, caused by the borrow and spend habits of her real-life parents' generation.

Director Shankland describes the foregoing scene as a "horrible SOPHIE'S CHOICE moment for Elaine." Production designer Suzie Davies perhaps hits the nail on the head more accurately, stating "We can't really kill someone from real life, unfortunately." If today's children could just off the oppressing generations weighing them down with the ease shown by the kids in this horror flick, such inter-generational mayhem might be the ho-hum norm, rather than the rare headline.