Creating a new face of horror is difficult. For every Jason, Freddy, and Michael Myers, there are countless forgettable imitators. These lower-tier boogeymen may look good, and their mythology may have promise, but they never haunt the imagination in a lasting way. I think a lot of this has to do with the quality of the movies the monsters are in. When the movie is lacking something, so is the staying power of the monster.
That’s one way to preface Child Eater. It’s such a competent throwback to old school horror movies of the 80s (though without the retro chic of other throwback horror films), and yet it feels a little too familiar.
[This review is part of Flixist’s coverage of the first ever Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, which runs from October 14th to October 16th. For tickets and more information about the inaugural Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, click here.]
Child Eater
Director: Erlingur Ottar Thoroddsen
Rating: TBD
Release Date: TBD
The Child Eater monster is a mix of familiar elements. The fingers and ears and baldness of Nosferatu‘s Count Orlok, the hulking menace of a Jason Vorhees, the coat a bit Candyman, the sunglasses like the ones worn by the Butterball cenobite from Hellraiser. (An eerie moment with feathers descending in the night also recalls a dream sequence in Hellraiser.) He’s scary, and the local legend around him evokes the spooky stories spread around small towns that happen to have a notorious figure/incident in their past. Maybe a little too familiar is just plain too familiar.
There’s a babysitter in peril named Helen (Cai Bliss) whose dad is a sheriff. There’s a cute but also creepy little boy she’s looking after named Lucas (Colin Critchley). And then there’s the monster. After a moody flashback sequence in the opening credits, the events unfold over the course of a single day and night. That becomes an issue considering wounds certain a certain character sustains; an hour or so later, this character runs around without acknowledging the injury. Come to think of it, where was that police backup two or three hours before? Oh, no matter.
There’s are some solid ideas and images to play with in Child Eater. The gore effects and the moody images are fine–a sequence with Lucas being chased in a makeshift network of tunnels is menacing for what it is–but maybe it’s all just fine. There are a lot of familiar horror tropes thrown in that feel perfunctory. Helen’s a capable final girl for a horror movie, but she feel more like an archetype than a distinct character. Like memorable movie monsters, unique final girls are hard to come by–not everyone is a Laurie Strode or a Nancy Thompson.
What I really wanted from Child Eater was a moment when the film becomes its own beast. Rather than ticking off a checklist of tropes, I was hoping it would go in some wild and unexpected direction. Writer/director Erlingur Ottar Thoroddsen originally did a short film version of Child Eater that can be viewed online, and many of those elements are planted throughout the feature-length version of the story. As far as the original elements, the tunnels I mentioned earlier offered a possibility, and an eerie game of hide and seek was squandered before achieving maximum effect. A creepy side character played by Melinda Chilton also felt like a wasted opportunity for Child Eater to build out its own identity as a film.
This isn’t to say Child Eater is bad. Again, it’s competent. It just needs more of a sense of individuality to stand out. Soup in need of salt; maybe a better stock, homemade and new.
