The Children (2008 film)

Elaine and Jonah travel with their two children, Miranda and Paulie, along with Casey (Elaine’s teenage daughter from a previous relationship), to spend the New Year with Elaine's older sister, Chloe, her husband Robbie, and their two children, Nicky and Leah. 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 black bile, where strange forms of bacteria are seen proliferating exponentially. The family cat, Jinxie, goes missing. By the next day, all of the children have become pale and infected and begin showing disturbing behavior. Robbie takes the children sledding and Nicky places a garden rake in his path, which slices open Robbie's head on impact. Robbie dies and the children flee into the forest.

In the forest, Casey finds Leah laughing and cutting into something, frightening her. Jonah tries to call emergency services, but they are held up by the snowy roads. Paulie attacks Jonah and causes Elaine to break her leg. Casey and Elaine seek refuge in the greenhouse. Chloe finds Robbie's body mutilated by the children; and is attacked by Leah. Casey saves her and Elaine in turn saves Casey from Paulie, accidentally killing him. Chloe accuses Casey and Elaine of going insane and angrily leaves with Jonah to find their kids.

Jonah and Chloe are separated in the woods, where Leah stabs Chloe in the eye with a crayon, killing her. In the house, Casey finds Miranda beating Jinxie's corpse and throttles her; Miranda manipulates Jonah into believing that Casey attacked them. Jonah locks Casey in the bedroom and they flee by car. Leah and Nicky approach Elaine but she is unable to bring herself to hurt them. The kids attempt to cut a wooden doll into her uterus.

Casey escapes and kills Nicky. She and Elaine flee by car and find Jonah dead in his car, having crashed into a tree. As Casey investigates, Miranda attacks her. Elaine kills Miranda and they notice a crowd of infected kids emerge from the woods. Elaine, who has observed Casey vomiting in the woods, is unsure whether to let Casey accompany her. Ultimately, she's unable to leave her 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 the virus has infected Casey as well.

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.[5][6]

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.[7]

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".[8]

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".[9] 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."[10]

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."[11] IGN said of the film "The Children is a flawlessly mounted horror film that knows exactly how to scare its audience."[12]

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.[13]

• The Children at IMDb