Creepy children and horror have been bedfellows for almost as long as films have existed. There’s always something unnerving about seeing the young interact with scary environments and situations, but new Norwegian movie The Innocents pushes the intensity to extreme levels. Not content to have the children be the sinister element in the background, writer and director Eskil Vogt puts them front and centre. Vogt does not hold any punches, thrusting young children into the spotlight and rather than presenting them as perfect little angels, highlights the devils hiding within.
There’s no adult to lead us into the world of The Innocents, instead the conduit is the young Ida (Rakel Lenora Fløttum). Ida and her older, non-verbal, autistic sister, Anna (Alva Brynsmo Ramstad), move into a new tower block. There they meet two other young residents, Aisha (Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim) and Ben (Sam Ashraf). As the group begins to play together they engage previously dormant abilities, which although fun at first, quickly distort into something evil.
Anyone that has watched a child grow up will attest to their latent talent for cruelty. In most children there are only ever brief glimpses into this side of them and almost all such incidents are linked to them learning how to interact with the world around them. A simple example would be a toddler stepping on a snail to see what happens. To adults, that’s a mean thing to do, but for the child it’s an innocent exploration of cause and effect. It takes several years to fully develop conscience and morality; The Innocents takes place somewhere along that journey. Even before any of their powers manifest, the children all possess the capacity to be cruel. This is demonstrated perfectly in Ida. She’s clearly struggling with jealousy surrounding the attention that Anna gets from their parents, and in typical childish fashion, resents her older sister. Although the ill-feelings bubble inside her, she is too young to fully articulate and understand her frustration and so she plays wicked tricks on her sister to hurt her. Ida’s scheme’s are lost on her sibling, go unnoticed by her parents, and so add more fuel to her frustration.
Upon meeting Ben, Ida appears to have found an equally angry kindred spirit; the pair connect over placing ants into peril. As bad as Ida can be, Ben is far worse. Ida is drawn to the danger within Ben, and in a bid to remain friends, she quickly falls into the role of follower and begins participating in Ben’s mean-spirited ideas in order to fit in with him. The differences in their levels of brutality become clear in a gut-wrenching sequence (one that made this writer have to take a break from the film) involving a domestic animal. From here on, The Innocents moves deeper into the darkness of Ben. As battlelines are drawn, Ida finds herself unsure of where exactly to place her allegiances.
There are some heavy and complex topics explored within The Innocents and all are handled incredibly well by the young cast. Alva Brynsmo Ramstad is especially good as Anna, approaching the character’s autism with care and respect. It’s unclear how much of what they were filming they would have understood and seen, but their end performances sell the danger and eerie elements of the plot. There’s a maturity to each of the child actors that extends beyond their small number of years, which is woven into the fabric of the film to craft the most honest recreation of the darker aspects of childhood psyches.
Set during a Scandinavian summer, the visuals in The Innocents are gorgeously sunny. The film captures that nostalgic feeling of being a child, when the days were all sunshine and fun. But Vogt juxtaposes these whimsically enchanting summerscape with the brutal actions of the youngsters. Horror is more often reserved for the night, but here, given the ages of those involved, it has to play out primarily during the day. If anything, this shift in time works to make The Innocents a more uncomfortable watch. Daytime is meant to be safe. The children’s parents are nearby, so nothing bad should be happening, and yet it is, almost to the complete obliviousness of the adults around them. Vogt does such a commendable job at making the sunny scenes so unsettling that even when nothing extreme or troubling is happening, the air is thick with dread and malice. This sensation is almost suffocating, Vogt marinating every frame in palpable tension and creating an atmosphere that is so oppressive, it’s almost hard to get to the end. Worse still, this feeling gradually increases and intensifies as the narrative moves forward. By the time the credits roll, the viewer is exhausted from being held in a constant state of terror.
Unflinchingly savage, The Innocents explores the loss of innocence and the formation of both a conscience and morals through the veil of the often overlooked malice held by the young. It’s a confronting film, one that doesn’t shirk away from its viciousness and by being so unafraid, creates an emotional and affecting tale of the perils of childhood and gives a whole new meaning to the term growing pains.
The Innocents
Summary
A film that doesn’t sugarcoat the innate ability for cruelty that lies in us all, even the young, The Innocents is a confronting and complex film that deserves to be seen by as many as are brave enough.
The Innocents is released in selected UK cinemas and on Digital HD from Friday 20th May 2022.
