CHILD EATER **** USA 2016 Dir: Erlingur Thoroddsen. 83 mins
If you’re a fan of IT and all it’s atmospheric dark fears about the things kids see that adults won’t believe then Child Eater from Black Stork Productions is a great and original movie that you will love. The cast is of standard size and the acting is great in a suspenseful horror story where Helen’s routine babysitting errand for the strange little boy Lucas goes badly wrong when the blind sadist Robert Bowery appears on the farm where no one should go, but they do.
The woods and basement shots are done effectively and the film really stirs your heart and mind with it’s lost, lonely and isolated feel to the point where you are almost revisiting The Barrens. Ginger (played well by Melinda Chilton) is the child that survived, and can she and Helen find Lucas before it’s too late? That is if Helen can truly believe any of this dark and bloody magic that will have you hot on the trail of a demented child serial killer.
The visual effects and makeup are just right and the musical score by Einar SV Tryggvason rumbled me along nicely in what becomes a dark and disturbed horror movie about a legendary and mystery shrouded child stalker. Robert is a neat combo of Pennywise and Hannibal polished off with some superb makeup that really picks out the horror of his unfortunate macular degeneration that is the reason for his disturbed madness.
The writing is superb too and engenders a lot of sympathy for Bowery’s first surviving victim Ginger, a true survivor and unfortunate outcast who lives alone out in the woods. The story is well-paced and balanced and will have you gripping your chair in stalked fear and twisted anticipation as you watch the story of Robert Bowery unfold and develop before your very eyes, if you are lucky enough to have any.
The unearthly villain is a neat incarnation of the lamentable Mr Krueger with a few different twists which is probably why guns can’t harm him, but do Ginger and Helen have other plans?
Child Eater was a nice surprise for me in many ways and I enjoyed it’s thrilling mix of murder and psychological mayhem which starts to really ramp up towards it’s adrenalin charged and really disturbed finale where your heart will pound in your mouth as the blood drips everywhere and Tryggvason’s wonderful musical score carries you off on a crescendo of thrilling murder where the eyes definitely have it.
Review by Nathan Sandiford
