User reviews

"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!

This film started ok but went downhill very quickly. Slow evolving plot and the poor acting made it slower.

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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

Well, the least I can say after watchin Child Eater is that I am not impressed at all. The poster looked like it could be something creepy but in the end it's just mediocre. Not only the story, but also the acting. It was just not that great, to say it politely. It might be a low budget movie, and there is nothing wrong with that, but that doesn't mean it has to be of mediocre quality, and unfortunately it is. The end, where the climax should be and where it normally always is, is sometimes so dumb you wonder how they come up with it. How the hell can you be afraid of a blind evil creature? How can you not outrun that or just kill it easely? All questions that you will have at one point, and for that alone Child Eater is just a stupid movie.

This movie is packed with ugly actors, i never seen so many ugly people in one movie, no talent, its all been done before.

A house with a secret, a paranormal killer chasing a kid, etc the gore was not bad but the rest annoying at best.

I hate people who post fake reviews so good people spend there hard earned money of crappy movies like this one.

Again another horrible terrible VHS video home. Please start to create the minus -10 . Low cheap budget movie, no actors, dialogue by force, no production, no director, this is a cheap low budget movie made by a bunch of neighbors in some redneck area in USA no writer, no history, nothing, no FX nothing, really terrible movie no waste your time download this horrible terrible movie. For sure the good comments are the families and neighbors of the people who make this terrible VHS home and the poor producer and director. This people and his director must be ban to produce or make another domestic VHS home movie. Bad terrible movie

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.

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.

This movie lasts only 1h22 but it seras much longuer due to repetitive scenes, a scenario that goes around in circles and accumulates clichés, and actors clearly not up to the task. In summary, it is terribly boring past the first quarter of an hour, there is not the least good idea, not the least good horror scene, the actors are bad, and the bogeyman is almost laughable. If you are a child may be this movie will scare you, but if you're over, let's say 11 or 12, you'll have a hard time feeling the least shiver of fear. A waste of time.

Basically a Jeepers Creepers Rip off/copycat movie. With some poor acting. The kid was the most decent actor out of the cast, & the lady who screamed at the little Ginger girl. It got predictable who was going to die, also. Plus: your typical doofas cops who are portrayed as not being prepared in the DARK ass woods. Lordy.

If only I hadn't gotten so curious, & watched this flick. Set myself up once again, for another horror film that pretty much regurgitated another. I would rather watch Sleepwalking camp for the 3rd time, & get the cringey feeling from that movie, for a specific reason, lol, but, yes, this was a letdown,& not a sight for "sore eyes."(Pun intended. Heheh)

'Child Eater' started as a mildly diverting, if unoriginal, 15-minute short in 2012. It told everything that needed to be told about the local legend of a child-eye-eating ghoul. In 2016, it was expanded into this cumbersome 82-minute feature by the same director with lots of extraneous padding. Some of the visuals are interesting, but the script is unoriginal and tiresome. The same actress plays the lead in the short and feature and does a reasonable job. No one else does. Find the short if the subject matter interests you; probably free online somewhere. This expansion is redundant and unnecessary.

This has got to be one of the worst movies I have ever seen. The acting is crap and the characters make stupid decisions over and over again. Forget about over acting, most under act. It makes the movie a cringefest..

The movie takes something from the legendary Boogeyman and features a monster inspired by it that feeds on children, especially their eyes. It's a B-movie with a low budget, few actors, and the blood is sometimes noticeable that it's fake. But as a horror movie it's well done, with a consistent script and good direction. The atmosphere feels gloomy and disturbing. Even the soundtrack is pretty decent. It's like some of those movies from the '80s that were made on a low budget and managed to create good quality horror. Child Eater is a B movie that as a horror movie does well. My final rating for this movie is 7/10.

"They're best when they're fresh" - and you just know they're not just talking about the croissants.

'Child Eater' is a decent low-budget shocker that emulates the kind of slasher film you've probably seen before, with some appealing characters and a memorable but unspectacular Jeepers-Creepers-style steampunk villain.

The titular child, Lucas, is played by Colin Critchley. Juvenile actors can make or break a story such as this. Mercifully, Lucas is one of the most likeable characters and Critchley plays him convincingly. Cait Bliss plays Helen convincingly too. Other characters don't come across so well.

On the evidence of Erlingur Thoroddsen's story, Robert Bowery, our antagonist, is far from limited to eating children. People of all ages are subject to his nicely conveyed, gruesome attention. There's little that is new here, but what we're given is enjoyable enough. My score is 6 out of 10.