Where did the kids go?
Main Cast: Zach Gilford, Alisha Wainright
Director: Roxanne Benjamin
I often take movie recommendations from people at work with a very large grain of salt, especially when it comes to horror movies. But every so often, one of them gets it right.
A guy suggested this movie a few years ago, but I had seen the trailer, knew basically what it was about, so I put it off, waiting for that day I had literally nothing else to watch. This was not that day, I had plenty of options. But something about it, this one won out. And I’m glad it did.
THERE’S SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE CHILDREN is written by T. J. Cimfel and David White, and directed by Roxanne Benjamin. I’ve never heard of these people. And of the seven people in the cast, I was familiar with two: Amanda Crews was in A HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT and Zach Gilford was … what was he in? I know that face. Something, what was it? It’s on the tip of my tongue. The Fall of the House of Usher and Midnight Mass, two of my favorite series from Netflix and Mike Flanagan and boy did I feel stupid when I realized that! The other adults were played by Carlos Santos and Alisha Wainright and were not to be slept on.
So I knew two cast members and I knew the general idea: family in the woods, the kids go off on their own and come back … different. One of the adults thinks something’s up but the other adults don’t believe him, and the now-evil kids play on that disbelief to torment the one who sees them for what they are.
Seen it before, and probably done better.
Well… Cimfel and White have taken a tired idea, breathed new life into it—primarily by compressing it and telling their story over the span of two days—and Benjamin took that idea and filmed the hell out of it.
THERE’S SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE CHILDREN is a slow burn, setting up tons of backstory and development on these adult characters, which is a good tactic; get to really know the adults well before you start to break them down and torture them with whatever’s taken over the kids. And this plot develops the hell out of these adults. This is surprisingly complex storytelling for an “evil kids” movie.
And then that third act plunge comes and from there on out it’s nothing but holy crap and hang onto your seats because they’re not slowing down.
All of the actors were in top form, especially Crews during some of the highly emotional scenes in which she really had fun playing the distraught mother. Effective but not overplayed.
The effects were very minimal but what was there really worked. Overall THERE’S SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE CHILDREN was just a fun movie with a good premise that knew how to take advantage of the primal fears of every parent. Looks like an outside recommendation finally paid off. I only wish I’d watched this one sooner.
C. Dennis Moore is the author of over 60 published short stories and novellas in the speculative fiction genre. Most recent appearances are in the Dark Highlands 2, What Fears Become, Dead Bait 3 and Dark Highways anthologies. His novels are Revelations, and the Angel Hill stories, The Man in the Window, The Third Floor, and The Flip.
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