I threw this on, expecting a straightforward exploitation movie, and got a BIG surprise. Firstly, it starts off with a prologue explaining, as a documentary, the atrocities and hardships that have affected children, starting with the holocaust (with footage), and leading to Vietnam war footage, and starving children in Africa. It’s was a shock and quite upsetting, mostly because I just wasn’t prepared for that.
Then we launch into the movie, which is partly in Spanish, but mostly in English, involving a married English couple (wife pregnant, and they have two other children back in England) holidaying in Spain, and the man telling his wife of a lovely quiet little island with a village he stayed at as a child.
There’s a festival on at the town they are in, and the noise makes them decide to go stay on the island. But when they get there, it seems deserted, except for playing children.
This is a creepy, but very engaging thriller/horror movie. Children can be utterly creepy in the right context, and this movie uses this to the full. The acting of the two leads is a little off – you can tell they’re good actors, but they seem to be overprojecting a little, almost like it’s a stage play. I think it may be something to do with being directed by a Spanish director maybe, and a different sensibility? Not sure, and I got used to it just fine, as the rest of the movie worked so damn well. The slow build, the quickly escalating (and profoundly shocking) violence, the music, the scene-setting, and the resolution, all worked excellently.
If I had to give a high-concept pitch: Imagine The Children of the Corn made with the same quality and sensibility as the original Wicker Man
thoroughly recommended.