The Innocents
Directed by Eskil Vogt
During the bright Nordic summer, a group of children reveal mysterious powers. But what starts out innocent soon takes a dark and violent turn in this gripping supernatural thriller. A SHUDDER EXCLUSIVE
During the bright Nordic summer, a group of children reveal mysterious powers. But what starts out innocent soon takes a dark and violent turn in this gripping supernatural thriller.
Cast: Rakel Lenora Flottum, Alva Brynsmo Ramstad, Sam Ashraf, Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim
Member Reviews
wow that was—i felt so much dread. now i feel like my heart has been through a wringer. difficult feelings, painfully real, visually beautiful. I'm still resonating with feelings. . . sorry for all the abstract terms, but I'm trying to pin down my thoughts. I'm being specific as i can. this is an amazing film.
Good
This is what I’m talking about shudder the truly different dragon ball z meets village of damned. Like how Netflix was in early days
This one is simply bizarre, there’s no other way to put it. It’s like Chronicle crossed with Village of the Damned, with some Dreamcatcher thrown in. The main point I have to applaud is the child acting, they all did a fantastic job and it never once felt like “this is clearly adults writing how they think kids talk. ” The portrayal of a child on the autism spectrum was respectful and they didn’t tokenize it as “oh wow autism gives you superpowers”. The animal cruelty really grossed me out, and I was glad to see that was only at the start of the movie, but they could have got the message across without showing so much graphic detail. I also felt a weird conflict of whether or not I was supposed to have any sympathy for the antagonist, because his home life was clearly not great, but this went beyond a story of perpetuating the cycle of abuse and the kid was just a psychopath - and I mean that literally, not as an insult. I did enjoy the character growth of the little girl as she saw what such cruelty could lead to. And honestly I have to give the movie props for not shying away from showing kids getting hurt - I know that sounds weird, but think about how so many movies treat the safety of kids as paramount, and you know in the back of your head that nothing is going to happen to them, so that not being the case in this movie really raised the stakes. The ending was a weird cliffhanger and just felt a bit. . . unsatisfying? Not one I’d watch again, and not one I’d recommend unless you’re looking for a horror movie that crosses some lines that most other horror movies don’t. Absolutely give it a pass if you can’t stand animal cruelty.
AMAZING movie.