The Children

Two married couples and their children are taking a winter vacation to one couple's quaint home in the woods, when the children contract a bizarre virus that turns them into homicidal murderers. If it came down to it, most people could probably kill a child to save their own life, but could they kill their own child? God, I hate kids.

Although it never milks its premise as fully as I would have liked, The Children is a capable and unnerving horror movie, aided by stronger writing and acting than we usually get in movies this violent and transparently exploitive. The film neatly avoids my usual complaint about killer children movies (kids aren't a credible physical threat) with the whole it's their own children angle, although it does have to contrive pretty fucking hard at times in figuring out how some little tot could murder a full grown adult. Still, after Offspring and The Children of the Corn remake, I'm naming The Children the best killer-kids movie I saw this month.