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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Children, The (Blu-ray) (2008)

Children, The (Blu-ray) (2008)

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Released 7-Sep-2010

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

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
Rating Rated MA
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
Not 16x9 Enhanced
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

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

     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.

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Transfer Quality

Video

     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.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     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.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

The Making of The Children featurette (19:34)

     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

Working with the Children featurette (5:04)

     The title says it all. The director talks about how he dealt with the kids. The kids talk about how they work.

Shooting on Location featurette (3:41)

     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.

Paul Hyett Talks Prosthetics featurette (4:54)

     An in-detail look at the prosthetics created for the film and how a lot of the gooey effects were realised.

Snow Set Design (6:31)

     An interesting look at how a snowy-looking set was constructed in a very different season.

Inside Tom Shankland’s On Set Lair featurette (8:21)

     The director gives an over-long tour of his temporary home and office used during the film's production.

Deleted scenes (6:00)

    Three extended and deleted scenes, mostly filler that appears to have been trimmed for time.

R4 vs R1

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.

Summary

     An entertaining, though disposable, British horror film about creepy kids that turn homicidal.

     The video and audio are good.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Adam Gould (Totally Biolicious!)
Monday, April 04, 2011
Review Equipment
DVDSony Playstation 3, using HDMI output
DisplayOptoma HD20 Projector. Calibrated with THX Optimizer. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080p.
Audio DecoderPioneer VSX2016AVS. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Digital Video Essentials.
AmplificationPioneer VSX2016AVS
Speakers150W DTX front speakers, 100W centre and 4 surround/rear speakers, 12 inch PSB Image 6i powered sub

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