Matt is creeped out by The Innocents

The Innocents (15)

Dir. Eskil Vogt 

Reviewed by Matt Adcock (@cleric20)

“We don’t need you, we can stop him, we have to…”

 

Children can certainly be scary, and I don’t mean in the ‘drain your money and energy; way that parents experience. Here we have some actually menacing kids building on a horror staple – from the old school creepiness in The Village of the Damned, callous antics of the Children of the Corn and the heart-breaking murderousness of the classic Let the Right One In (My Review).

 

Here we meet young Ida (Rakel Lenora Fløttum), a pre-teen who has just moved into a new apartment complex with her parents (Ellen Dorrit Pedersen and Morten Svartveit) and autistic elder sister Anna (Alva Brynsmo Ramstad). Things start off building up the sense of the mundane existence of newcomers, but things take a turn when Ida makes a new pal, Ben (Sam Ashraf), and realises that he has a form of telekinesis.

Things start small and innocent enough – making bottle tops change direction when dropped etc but the children keep this discovery a secret from the grownups around them. It seems that there are other children in the same tower block with supernatural abilities too and initially it even seems beneficial when it helps Anna start to begin to find a way to speak.

The Innocents builds up slowly, an incident of horrible cruelty to a cat, a violent retaliation for bullying, but before long there is a body count and some horrific happenings.

What unfolds is a fascinating treatise on the cruel secrets’ children harbor and what they might do if given the power to hurt those around them. Don’t come expecting action or a fast pace, Director Vogt takes plenty of time to turn the screw of the situation but the pay-off is excellent and a breath-taking quiet climax that takes place under the very noses of the adults around them.

The Innocents is an exceptional film that deserves to build a reputation as a cult classic, a new kind of nightmare that takes existing tropes and energizes them to deliver something memorable.

Out of a potential 5, you have to go with a Darkmatters:

öööö

(4 - X-Kids can be cruel too…)

Awesomeness öööö – some scenes will stay with you

Laughs ö – not much funny business 

Horror öööö – burst of grimness 

Spiritual Enlightenment öö - not so innocent

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