Child Eater

I think this film has a lot of average things going on, including the acting. And it's cool that the police referenced the urban myth as a weird case, but I feel that there should have been more details given to the lore they were planning.

The creature almost didn't know what it wanted to be, and looked very much like a budget Jeepers Creepers. I think adding more lore/myth and information about the creature would have help make it it's own thing more.

It's not a bad watch, just very average horror.

Maybe to grasp all the director was trying to accomplish here would have been better understood with a deeper understanding of this legend. The plot appears to me to be an underdeveloped urban legend thought of for this film and therefore even the good points of this short paled to a story that should have been better written.

"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.

Felt kinda fresh in all honesty, I'm just sadden by the fact that it didn't lay some kind of rules down. What is it? Can it be killed? Stopped? Slowed down? Sure, overall we have some data about it, and it does respect all said but I think it could have provided a lot more tension if we had more to work with.

Anyway, without further ado, Child Eater made the best of its budget, plot, actors, had a very good execution for such a production and managed to delivered on some levels. It starts rather fast I might say and goes on to create a good little world for itself.

If only more horrors would try this approach, and not rely so much on gore, blood and ripoff all other movies and genres, like zombies and torture porn in the woods.

Cheers!

Violence against children is one of cinema's greatest taboos, and in an age where audiences are completely jaded, and almost anything goes, it's a taboo that still remains rarely broken. Other than the death of animals, there's not much that will offend a viewership more than hurting a child. Only a sick individual would want to see something so awful on screen, and with that in mind, I approached Child Eater with great anticipation.

Based on a short (which was successfully funded via kickstarter), Erlingur Thoroddsen's Child Eater is a supernatural slasher that recalls childhood fears brought on by legends, ghost stories, and monsters that lurk inside the minds of the pre-pubescent. Thoroddsen (I won't pretend to know how to pronounce his name) brings a Finnish perspective, which isn't exactly discernible in the filmmaking, but more evident in the Scandinavian folklore-esque nature of the villain.

The story revolves around newly pregnant Helen - daughter of the town Sheriff - who is tasked with babysitting Lucas - a precocious boy living in a house with a horrible history. Lucas swears someone is watching him, first from across the forest, and soon, from his bedroom closet. Things get stranger when a local woman, once attacked by an infamous child killer, calls the Sheriff's department and claims her assailant is back and ready to kill again.

Strangely, this is the second film in a row that I've watched featuring a protagonist named Helen, and here she's played by Cait Bliss, who has a refreshing girl-next-door quality. Colin Critchley gives a rare decent child performance in amongst what, for the most part, is a mixed bag of acting.

The fall atmosphere is palpable, as the opening scenes of the film are dressed with dead trees and dry, broken grass. The villain is suitably creepy and mysterious, until we see a bit too much of him. Unfortunately, the cracks in the production begin to show through. The low budget holds it back. Some more layers of post-production may have helped with the look and sound, but that obviously wasn't an option.

Beyond the budget restrictions, all slasher films run the risk of hitting a creative wall, since there's only so much you can do with the genre. Child Eater falls into the trap and devolves into people running aimlessly through a dark forest while making increasingly poor and irresponsible decisions. The cop characters are predictably useless, and before long it becomes hard to sympathize with anyone on screen. The kills are lackluster and the stakes never feel quite high enough.

Our heroine's transition from babysitter to hardcore badass who doesn't feel pain isn't really convincing either. Her arc doesn't gel with the rest of the story. I guess there's an attempt here to say something about the anxiety of incoming parenthood, but how that relates to the villain's backstory and the rest of the characters doesn't really become apparent.

I haven't seen the short Child Eater is based on, so I can't speak to how effective the transition was to full length, but as a feature it's admirable when taking its budget into account, even if it's wonky overall. You can feel there was passion here and a genuine attempt to make something fun.

But with all that in mind I have one major complaint, and it's about the name of the film - it's false advertisement! The villain spends far more time eating adults than it does children, and for that, I can't forgive it.