During the bright Nordic summer, a group of children disclose their dark and strange powers when the adults aren't looking. In this unique and gripping paranormal thriller, playtime takes a dangerous turn.
Rotten Tomatoes 97% IMDB 7.0/10
kids can be cruel. Particularly so when they think they won’t be trapped. When a group of children in a housing complex in suburban Norway develop weird powers – ranging from telekinesis to the skill to manage the mind and body of another – they soon graduate from levitating pot tops to remotely snapping limbs and impaling each other through bits of trees.
This is the next feature from Norwegian director Eskil Vogt, who as Joachim Trier’s co-writer was Oscar-nominated previous this year for The Worst Person in the World. Tonally, this is faster to the pair’s previous teamwork, the sparky, metaphysical teen picture Thelma. But The Innocents is an altogether more chilling proposal that harnesses the frightening malice of bored kids and blurs the line sandwiched between social drama and out-and-out horror.
Any film driven by kid performances is mainly dependent on excellence casting. And in this, the film is first-rate: the four little actors are completely persuasive, even as they are wielding cast-iron frying pans with their minds. Ida (Rakel Lenora Fløttum) and her profoundly autistic older sister Anna (Alva Brynsmo Ramstad) are new to the area. Rejected by the big children, Ida bonds with man social outcast Ben (Sam Ashraf), who impresses her with his experiments with telekinesis. Then there’s empathic Aisha (Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim), who can perceive sound people’s opinion and can converse telepathically with the non-verbal Anna.
The child’s viewpoint on the story means that the film is unthinking when it comes to the sources of the supernatural powers, neatly sidestepping the require for exhibition. In a child’s mind, the supernatural is real, black magic painfully so.
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