Wake Wood (2010) Horror Cult

Wake Wood (2010) - The film smartly uses the opening credits for a lot of the setup. A couple Louise (Eva Birthistle) and Patrick (Aidan Gillen) have a younger daughter Alice (Ella Connolly) who is mauled by a dog and dies. The couple leaves the town they are in to live in the small village of Wake Wood. Patrick a veterinarian and Louise a pharmacist seem to setting into the community but the loss of their daughter has strained their relationship. Louise can't let go and Patrick feels she needs to move on. All while the credit are playing.The tone through the music is sedate and meditative and the camera not particularly active.
  Things begin to change when there car breaks down on a country road and Louise while looking for the local who lives there runs into a pagan ritual being performed. She does not know what it is but sees the blood covered man emerge from a cocoon. When arriving home on of the participants Arthur, from the event is in their house just so they can know that she was seen too. As the days go on Louise learns from the local woman what the deal is and since she is in such grief she sees it as a way to see her child again.

  A unique ritual can be performed where the dead can be brought back to life for three days. Stricken parents should not be making this decision and this couple in there struggle lie about how long the girl has been dead. In the ritual know one should be brought back only if they have been dead less than a year. Its a big contract, a body of a recently dead person is used to pull the spirit into transforming it into the the earlier deceased. Then the parents and the child will be bound for life to the village limits. The child then must go back after three days. This is about grieving and it is a sad thing so you get the feeling while watching that there is no way this is going to turn out well.
  What is so wonderfully gruesome about this film is some of the things that need to be done to the receiving corpse prior to the ritual. banging and cutting and crushing. Then of course it the need for living blood and a bit of fire and the couple crack the protective shell and have their daughter back.
  Alice is back and the first day is a delight for the family but this is really a temporary condition. These are parents who can not let go so things are going to be strange, and during the next too there are incidents that make the girl more strange and creepy than kind and loving. The film has a nice slow build towards the end and as little Alice gets more and more evil we see why this ritual should not be taken lightly. Overall I think the film delivers in mood proving just how chilling little evil kids can be. Since Alice is a child dead for more than a year she can't be controlled the ways other could and soon the wee one is on a killing spree in the village.
  Satisfying in a small film kind of way this is a nice little flick for a dark night. Not great but certainly enjoyable.
As I have done so far this year; I am doing as an experiment my Twitter account @Soresport is dedicated to following and being followed by people in and behind the scenes. Then I am also hoping some of them follow me back. I do fear that Twitter has become too much of a promotional tool for people in film to actually get those follow backs but hey its an experiment.  

The Children (2008) Revisited Horror Christmas

The Children (2008) - REVISITED! As a virus infects the children of a couple families having Christmas together the sick children get pretty evil and begin to kill the adults. I noticed the  character's relationships a bit more this time through. The visiting family of Mother Elaine (Eva Birthistle) has a young adult daughter Casey (Hannah Tointon) and a young boy, Paulie (William Howes) who I have to say is a real Mama's boy, from an earlier relationship, Her husband Jonah (Stephen Campbell Moore) also has a child from a previous relationship a little girl named Miranda (Eva Sayer). It is obviously not the perfect nuclear family but they seem to be making it work. This is to contrast Elaine's sister Chloe (Rachel Shelley) who has a sucessful husband Robbie (Jeremy Sheffield) and two children Leah (Rafiella Brooks) and Nicky (Jake Hathaway). The dynamics between the sisters is some what interesting as sister relationships are in real life. The younger, Elaine seems a bit put off by her more successful older sister. She seems to have the perfect house and husband. They are both already retired in their forties after selling a company. They live in a large beautiful house and Chloe is portrayed as a know it all when it comes to raising children. There is the conflict between couples about permissive upbringing versus strict rules based child rearing. Robbie is a tall successful and handsome man who now spends his days investing his money and living a life of leisure. He is the cool uncle but really comes across a bit creepy when he interacts with the Casey. There is also the dynamic of how unsuccessful Jonah is, he is a schemer trying to hit it big. It is revealed that he has been scammed in the past and is not great at choosing his opportunities. He is hoping to sell some Chinese medicine scheme to Robbie but gets cut off each time. It all works to create a tension that is wonderfully under the surface of the weekend.
Then there is the fundamental disbelief the parents have when the harm starts. Of course as a parent there is no way you are going to think your child is trying to kill you. This movie co-ops the fear that behind the innocent faces there is evil waiting to strike. The underlying tension also comes to the surface also which is really well done. It makes it difficult for the parents and Casey as the adults to join together to deal with the situation. In fact the parents can never think that the children are responsible for acts of violence. Where most of the damage at first happens when adults are isolated from one another it the makes then think each other are negligent for the apparent accidents that are happening.
When I think of evil children the movie that comes to mind is "Children of the Corn". It is a more overt film with the theme being right out there from the beginning. The children killing the adults of the town is one of the first scenes and you know from the start what will happen. In The Children" The process is slower and the immediate danger is not there, but the threat grows as more of the kids get infected. The film is effective at not letting the parents catch on too quickly and even though the Casey seems onto the games of the kids. Being the younger than the parents but older than the children she is not really listened to by the adults when she knows something is wrong. In fact she is seen as not helping enough early on and then becomes distrusted as the possible killer later.
There are not too many ways this plot can go so.  What it does is builds a series of mishaps to the adults who think that negligence and accidents are to blame. Then as more evidence that it is the children comes to the fore they start to turn on each other. The children on the other hand use their relationships with their parents to do the maximum damage. It becomes a fight for the parents to deal with a threat from the most innocent beings they know.
During the film you wonder what the hell, why are the police and ambulance not responding. It in the end can be cleverly explained though.  There is also a great twist between Elaine and Jonah that I did not see coming. It really is a cold blooded change that fits one of the characters pretty well. When the last couple of survivors try to get away what will they be running to? You will have to watch it to find out. There is this one final scene that the staging of I have to say I don't really like. You come across the a situation and you are in the protected inside of a car. Do you ever leave that safety to check a scene out? I say no! but over and over again in horror film it is necessary for the tension to have someone get out of the car and investigate something.
Writers Paul Andrew Williams and Tom Shankland (who also directed) do a good job making this a believable story and the horror of parents being attacked and having to defend themselves against there children is chilling. The directing was sharp enough to build a believable survival story. There is that one thing though, when is it when the people are in a car and see what looks like a dangerous scene, one or both of them have to get out of the car to investigate? I can see early in a film but late in a movie when the characters already know there is a ton of danger. Watching this film for a second time I was impressed with the construction of the characters and the blocking of the incidents so that the reactions of the adults were somewhat believable. In the end I think I liked this film more on a second viewing. If there is one drawback I would critique it on is one of the characters totally seems to give up at one point even though fighting would not be that hard. I just hate that in a character.
Rating (6.6) 5.0 and up are recommended, some more recommended than others.

The Children (2008) - Horror virus

The Children (2008) - Children of the snow. As a virus infects the children of a couple families having Christmas together the sick children get pretty evil and begin to kill the adults. There is not a lot more plot than this really. There is the conflict between couples about permissive upbringing versus strict rules based child rearing. There is the teenage girl sort of flirting with her aunts husband and his creepy acceptance of it. Then there is the fundamental disbelief the parents have when the harm starts. Of course as a parent there is no way you are going to think your child is trying to kill you. This movie co-ops the fear that behind the innocent faces there is evil waiting to strike. When my daughter was small 3 or so I had this dream that I awoke and heard her little feet pattering out of our room. Strange I thought and got up to follow her, the apartment we had could be circled in going room to room. I would hear the patter and follow only to not see her. Then I entered the kitchen after the footsteps, flicked on the lights. Joy was up on a chair reaching enough to pull a butcher knife out of the block. When the light went on I only saw this in a glimpse as she push it back in quickly and leaned to the sink saying, "dwink, water". The whole dream was wrapped in a feeling of being a bit afraid. This is what this film does. The parents can never quite be sure what is going on. There is a threat but it is from the least likely to cause it.
When I think of evil children the movie that comes to mind is "Children of the Corn". It is a more overt film with the theme being right out there from the beginning. The children killing the adults of the town is one of the first scenes and you know from the start what will happen. In The Children" The process is slower and the immediate danger is not there, but the threat grows as more of the kids get infected. The film is effective at not letting the parents catch on too quickly and even though the teenager seems onto the games of the kids. Being the teen she is not really listened to by the adults and in fact becomes distrusted as the possible killer.
There are not too many ways this plot can go so I was waiting for the reveal that the problem was not just an isolated incident but a worldwide epidemic. When the last couple of survivors try to get away what will they be running to? Will they escape and infected zone or just be heading into new terrors? You will have to watch it to find out.
Writers Paul Andrew Williams and Tom Shankland (who also directed) do a good job making this a believable story and the horror of parents being attacked and having to defend themselves against there children is chilling. The directing was sharp enough to build a believable survival story. There is that one thing though, when is it when the people are in a car and see what looks like a dangerous scene, one or both of them have to get out of the car to investigate? I can see early in a film but late in a movie when the characters already know there is a ton of danger.
The acting was solid with Eva Birthistle and Rachel Shelly as adult sisters, Stephen Campbell Moore and Jeremy Sheffield as the husbands, and the lovely Hannah Tointon as the teenager Casey. Oh and one more thing, Blue Crayon!
Rating (6.2) 5.0 and up are recommended in the Zombiegrrlz rating system I would say Rent It!