Children, The (Blu-ray) (2008) |
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General | Extras | ||
Category | Horror |
Main Menu Audio & Animation Featurette-Making Of Deleted Scenes Featurette-Working with the Children Featurette-Shooting on Location Featurette-Paul Hyett Talks Prosthetics Featurette-Snow Set Design Featurette-Inside Tom Shankland’s On Set Lair |
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Rating | |||
Year Of Production | 2008 | ||
Running Time | 84:22 | ||
RSDL / Flipper | Dual Layered | Cast & Crew | |
Start Up | Menu | ||
Region Coding | 4 | Directed By | Tom Shankland |
Studio
Distributor |
Icon Entertainment | Starring |
Eva Birthistle Stephen Campbell Moore Jeremy Sheffield Rachel Shelley Hannah Tointon Raffiella Brooks Jake Hathaway William Howes Eva Sayer |
Case | Standard Blu-ray | ||
RPI | $46.95 | Music | Stephen Hilton |
Video | Audio | ||
Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None | English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 | |
Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | ||
16x9 Enhancement |
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Video Format | 1080p | ||
Original Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | Miscellaneous | |
Jacket Pictures | No | ||
Subtitles | English | Smoking | Yes |
Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
Action In or After Credits | No |
Two families hole up in a snowy English country cottage-come-mansion for the New Year’s holiday. All seems idyllic until their young children start behaving oddly. By day 2 it has become apparent something a little more than red cordial has gotten into the little buggers, and their parents find themselves fighting for their lives against giggling homicidal minors.
The Children is a reasonably decent Village of the Damned clone that harks back to the style of old Hammer films. Although it is really no more than a slasher-type film that substitutes knives and hockey masks for creepy kids, the production values are high, the cast are all pretty good (in an old fashioned taking-it-all-too-seriously kind of way), and the pacing of the none-too-original story is just about right. It is a fun film to watch, but one that will be forgotten moments after watching.
The film is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect in 1080p. The video looks good, but isn't anything that will blow viewers away. The image is reasonably clear and sharp. Mild filmic grain is visible, which is quite even throughout the film. There is a good level of shadow detail and black depth to the image. The colour palette is well chosen to contrast against the harsh white of the snowy surrounds. There is no sign of compression artefacts or other video nasties in the image.
The disc features optional English subtitles, which appear to be reasonably accurate and well timed based on the portion sampled.
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Overall |
The film features a single English DTS 5.1 HDMA audio track.
The audio is clean and well mixed. The dialogue is clearly audible in the mix. There are no issues with audio sync. The film features a fairly routine orchestral score, which is well presented in the mix. The surrounds are used reasonably well to create an immersive environment, then aggressively during the scary bits. There is not a great deal of subwoofer activity in the track, save for the big audio rush at a few of the scary bits.
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Overall |
A fairly decent making-of featurette, which spends plenty of time on set and interviewing the filmmakers. Although not the most riveting look at low-budget filmmaking you will find, this is a genuine attempt to make an interesting featurette rather than press kit fluff
The title says it all. The director talks about how he dealt with the kids. The kids talk about how they work.
A short filler-featurette about how the film was shot, which seems to have been entirely on location in a rented country house and its surrounds.
An in-detail look at the prosthetics created for the film and how a lot of the gooey effects were realised.
An interesting look at how a snowy-looking set was constructed in a very different season.
The director gives an over-long tour of his temporary home and office used during the film's production.
Three extended and deleted scenes, mostly filler that appears to have been trimmed for time.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The US, UK and Australian editions of the film all appear to be identical in terms of content, save for a few regionalised trailers for other films.
An entertaining, though disposable, British horror film about creepy kids that turn homicidal.
The video and audio are good.
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Review Equipment | |
DVD | Sony Playstation 3, using HDMI output |
Display | Optoma HD20 Projector. Calibrated with THX Optimizer. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080p. |
Audio Decoder | Pioneer VSX2016AVS. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Digital Video Essentials. |
Amplification | Pioneer VSX2016AVS |
Speakers | 150W DTX front speakers, 100W centre and 4 surround/rear speakers, 12 inch PSB Image 6i powered sub |