There's Something Wrong with the Children (2023)

August 26, 2023 2:05 PM

When Margaret (Alisha Wainwright) and Ben (Zach Gilford) take a weekend trip with longtime friends Ellie (Crew) and Thomas (Santos) and their two young children (Briella Guiza and David Mattle), Ben begins to suspect something supernatural is occurring when the kids behave strangely after disappearing into the woods overnight.<

Directed by Roxanne Benjamin. Written by T.J. Cimfel, David White.

62% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Currently streaming in the US on MGM+. JustWatch.

posted by DirtyOldTown (2 comments total)

This has a solid setup and premise, but once the monster/horror part kicks in, it's all predicament stuff about pod people and there's nothing fresh or resonant about it. Not trash or anything, but really doesn't fulfill the promise of the premise.

It just doesn't add up to much, decent as many of the pieces are. They set up some interesting thematic stuff with childless people reacting to the children as vicious parasites, pod people stuff. But they didn't really deliver.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 3:09 PM on August 26, 2023

Agreed. It's like the movie was backwards. They rushed through the good stuff, and then belabored the boring stuff. I wanted to like it more, but it kept shooting itself in the foot. Dug the soundtrack, though.
posted by mrphancy at 4:00 PM on August 26, 2023