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The Children

The Children

Horror · Mystery · Thriller · 2008

A relaxing Christmas vacation turns into a terrifying fight for survival as the children begin to turn on their parents.

Movie details

The Children

“You brought them into this world. Now ... They will take you out.”

2008 Horror · Mystery · Thriller 1h 24m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

5.9 / 10

19.4K votes

TMDB

6.1 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

A relaxing Christmas vacation turns into a terrifying fight for survival as the children begin to turn on their parents.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Children?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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The Hills Have Eyes

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Tom Shankland

Written by

Tom Shankland

Eva Birthistle

Eva Birthistle

Elaine

Hannah Tointon

Hannah Tointon

Casey

Stephen Campbell Moore

Stephen Campbell Moore

Jonah

Rachel Shelley

Rachel Shelley

Chloe

Jeremy Sheffield

Jeremy Sheffield

Robbie

Rafiella Brooks

Rafiella Brooks

Leah

J

Jake Hathaway

Nicky

Court is in session

Put The Children on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Arthouse Gremlin

“Its refusal to behave is the point.”

The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.

The prosecution The Prestige Tourist

“Oddness is not depth.”

A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.