The Children

As directed by Brit Tom Shankland, this outing constitutes a chilling installment in the subgenre of horror films about evil children running amok. The tale unfolds in contemporary England during a snowy, late December, with a young married couple, Jonah (Stephen Campbell Moore) and Elaine (Eva Birthistle), journeying into the country to spend New Year's with immediate family -- Elaine's sister Chloe (Rachel Shelley) and brother-in-law Robbie (Jeremy Sheffield). Accompanying the adults are three children: Casey (Hannah Tointon), Elaine's adolescent daughter from a first marriage (who resents being dragged along), and youngsters Paulie (William Howes) and Miranda (Eva Sayer), her children with Jonah (who can't wait to see their cousins Nicky and Leah). Upon arrival at Robbie and Chloe's home, ominous and increasingly bizarre events begin to transpire: Paulie grows visibly ill, Leah and Nicky begin slipping into menacing and threatening behavior toward everyone, capped off by an ugly accident that they engineer involving Robbie -- an incident that pushes him to the brink of death and ends with a gruesome act of carnage committed by the children. Soon, Elaine realizes that Paulie is infected with a bizarre, zombie-like virus that he is systematically spreading to the other children, and promptly decides to ameliorate the situation by taking violence into her own hands and ending the boy's young life. Little does she realize, however, just how pervasive the virus has grown.