Child Eater

"Child Eater" felt like a second-rate "Jeepers Creepers" creation in what's a commonplace independent bogeyman horror (expanded from a short film) playing on the fears of what's lurking in the pitch dark and the protective instincts and responsibilities of parenting, or becoming one. It slowly escalates and pans out like a slight cautionary/or urban folklore tale without the complexities. Writer/director Erlingur Thoroddsen uses conventional tropes in trying to strike up an even balance between the ominously serene atmospherics (of throwaway sound fx) and brazen jolts (by inflicting grisly eyeball trauma). For some reason everything is magnified, including the spotty acting, therefore the story is limited by its small scale origins as the creepiness eventually evaporates into dogged silliness. Expect numerous false build-ups, sudden flashes of a looming figure and characters constantly wandering around investigating every strange occurrence/or sound. Although I did get a kick out of the closet shock. Visually the aesthetics are stylishly executed, dimly lit passages of an isolated old house and barn with an encroaching woodland, but how it gets there is predictably muffled in its formulaic tailoring. The background of the titular monster is delivered throughout in constant monologues, where it would stop everything to explain detailed stories, or horrific past events about this (confusingly) infamous supernatural serial killer. The more we learnt, the less interesting, even unnerving it became. An okay time-waster, but nothing more.

Nothing new or unusual pretty much as expected decent killer decent acting for me it needed more gore and scares but like I said it's worth a watch. Wont add it to my horror movie collection or need to see it again but I was entertained.

Sure, it's not the best acting or the highest budget, but this was creepy. My husband asked me if I saw the figure when the closet door opened, and I had to rewind it--still didn't see it. Just the door opening on it's own made me regress to being six years old and terrified of my closet. lol It's definitely a good watch for fall or around Halloween. Watch it in the dark.

Was drawn into seeing 'Child Eater' with a cool poster/cover, a very intriguing if not creative premise and as someone with a general appreciation for the genre as said many times. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there, made me though apprehensive.

'Child Eater' is a film it doesn't do enough with its potential (although there are far bigger wastes of potential in film) and could have been much better. 'Child Eater' is very weak with a lot of big problems. It certainly could have been far worse, considering the large number of films seen recently being mediocre at best and terrible at worst.

Lets start with the positives. The setting is atmospheric and spooky and 'Child Eater' could have looked far worse visually, was expecting a cheap looking film and to me that wasn't the case here.

'Child Eater' has some suspenseful and creepy moments in the first third and it started off on a fun and intriguing note.

Albeit, there is nothing new here, it's all familiar territory and executed in old-hat fashion. The second half also takes itself far too seriously and gets incredibly idiotic, a very completely different film feel here. The creepiness dissipates completely fairly early on, with the horror, suspense and tension being nowhere near enough. Things start not making much sense and gets silly, with one of the most ludicrous and easily foreseeable endings ever. The acting is not amateurish, but it's also fairly unremarkable.

Further issues are that it was clear that it was written in haste. There is a very rushed and careless feel to the story, especially in the second half where confusion and choppiness can be found in editing and narrative, and the underdeveloped and scrappy script likewise.

Then there is some padding and aimlessness that also gives the film a dragging sensation. The characters are flimsily developed, annoying and bland, the direction lacks focus and the music and sound editing are far too intrusive and obvious.

In summary, weak. 3/10 Bethany Cox

"Child Eater" is a more than admirable attempt to revive a specific type of sub-genre, namely films that are probably best described as "boogeyman horror". Movies that bring to life eerie monsters that were initially invented to petrify little children, but then turn out to be frightfully real for kids and adults! In this context, I spontaneously think of semi-classics like "Jeepers Creepers", "The Gate", "Troll", "Monster in the Closet" or "The Boogens", but "Child Eater" is actually a lot darker and more sinister than those. The tone, atmosphere and evil nature of the boogeyman here is more reminiscent to "Candyman" or the original "Nightmare on Elm Street". Mind you, I'm not saying the overall film is as good as those classics, but merely that the titular monstrosity is truly nightmarish and his background story is ultimately morbid. Writer/director Erlingur Thoroddsen – I think we better keep an eye on him – makes it clear straight from the beginning that the tale he wishes to tell is dead serious. During the atmospheric opening sequences, the camera follows around a blond little girl who wanders around all alone in the woods. Only when a person approaches her to offer help, she turns around and we learn that the poor kid is holding her own eyeball in her hand. Don't know about you, but this is definitely one of the spookiest yet most attention-grabbing intros I've seen in quite a long time! 25 years later, the same area is still under the spell of the notorious child murderer Robert Bowery. He used to be a friendly petting zoo owner, but a dreadful disease caused him to go slowly blind … and utterly mad. Bowery became convinced that he wouldn't go blind for as long as he murdered young children and ATE their eyes. But that was a long time ago. Bowery was killed, his story became an urban legend and only occasionally there are still reports of a mysterious figure dwelling around in the woods. When 7-year-old Lucas comes to warn his babysitter Helen that there's a monster in his closet, she sends him away because she has more serious problems on her mind. But then Lucas vanishes into the night. As Helen goes further and deeper into the woods to look for him, she begins to realize that the monstrous killer is back. I really enjoyed "Child Eater" a lot. It's definitely not the most original horror story, but it benefices tremendously from the desolate ambiance, grim set-pieces and the menacing titular monster. Bowery is a tall creep with thick dark glasses, ginormous ears, rotting teeth and a constant petrifying grin on his face. He actually looks a lot like Michael Berryman... Thoroddson doesn't waste any energy on unnecessary humor and there's plenty of room for gore and bloodshed next to the eerie suspense. The acting performances are adequate enough and although there are some minor flaws, "Child Eater" is an impressive long-feature debut.