Children of Sin

I had not heard about this 2022 horror movie titled "Children of Sin" from writer and director Christopher Wesley Moore prior to sitting down to watch it here in 2023. Thus, I didn't know what I was in for here, nor did I have any expectations.

I will say that the movie's cover had a distinct 1980s horror feel to it, and that is why I picked up the movie to begin with.

However, there was nothing 1980s about this movie. In fact, there was nothing about the movie at all, unless you consider a clumsy script, flaccid acting performances and a general boring atmosphere as to be entertainment. The character gallery in Christopher Wesley Moore's "Children of Sin" was about as interesting as watching paint drying.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in "Children of Sin", however I can't claim that I was particularly impressed with what I saw either, as the performances were rigid, wooden and general lacking a drive from the actors and actresses.

For a horror movie then "Children of Sin" was a swing and a miss. And it is definitely not a movie that I would suggest you waste your time, money or effort on. Some of us suffered through 95 minutes of this ordeal so you don't have to.

My rating of "Children of Sin" lands on a two out of ten stars.

After getting in trouble with their family, a teen and her brother are sent to a secluded camp with other problematic teens for converting them to religion, but when they realize the tactics aren't the holiest in origin must try to convince the remaining guests to leave before it's too late.

There was a lot to like with this one. Among the better features here is the highly engrossing setup that paints their arrival at the facility in a strong way. The dynamic on display at the house, with the intense religious imposition onto others with his own beliefs towards how he wants the family to behave despite how the rest of the family acts including the questioning how the whole affair started or the inability to follow along with his regimented idea of how a family acts, get this going along nicely. That it's so hard to feel any sense of sympathy for the parents and instead derives plenty of intrigue towards the kids instead of for their plight makes this one rather interesting. Once they get to the retreat, there's a lot to like here with the film opting to work with the concept of the owner being the secretly corrupt and improper leader while trying to maintain a sense of prim and proper status. Spending the time to ensure the other guests there are hammered with the sense of her desired values with a strict and severe punishment system ready to be introduced at the slightest provocation, the setup on display here works incredibly well for this type of effort. That enough is going on with these rules and the cruel kills she enacts to keep the ploy going about trying to save them has quite a lot to like leading into the fun finale. That's the biggest factor to this one as the series of encounters and confrontations that emerge has a lot to enjoy. Getting the big reveal out about the truth behind the leader and what she was doing with the unruly participants allows this one to generate a lot of fun back-and-forth encounters here involving the last-ditch efforts to kill off the group. That includes the chases around the house or the final brawl that manages to include some pretty brutal moments that offer up some more bloodshed than expected to go along with the really enjoyable action to take place. These elements are enough to hold this one up for the most part. It does have a few minor drawbacks that affect this one. The main one is the rather obvious sense of padding that goes on here, making a film like this last far longer than it should. This is based mainly on the suspense scenes showing the group around the camp trying to sneak around the facility or look into something that doesn't make sense about one of her stories which lasts way too long, although that also takes into account several scenes involving the love story with the handyman which also falls into that category. The last sequence that falls into that, which is a big issue separately, is the overlong finale that reads as a massively stupid move by characters that had displayed far more of that to that point while also running on too long for its good. These are the issues that bring it down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, and themes of sexual abuse.

I don't know what film these other reviewers watched, but Children of Sin was mostly just boring. Jo-Ann Robinson was great, but most everyone else... was not. The first act sets up a cliche but promising premise, the second act drags on forever, the third act kinda stumbles around for a while, and the last ~5 minutes were alright.

This film isn't terrible, it doesn't cross the line into so-bad-it's-good, it's just kinda boring, which is the one thing a movie shouldn't be.

This film looks great and way above the budget. A few homages to other horror classics, some Kubrick-esque shots and a score reminiscent of Halloween 3, but a timely, original story and some great jump scares. The script and characters felt real.

Some of the cinematography was good but some of it was not. Most of the film had great sound design, though there was some poor dialogue or ADR sync issues at times. I think what I liked the most about it was the script wasn't terrible for a plot that wasn't totally grabbing my interest. The poster really catches your eye and it's one of the film's cooler traits.

The acting could have been better, but it was fine for what it was. Some of the kills were kind of clever too. I think my main concern was the misuse of lighting really lowered the film quality for me. The choreography during fights needed more previsionary treatment and the ending came off a bit too corny. I have to say it was better than most films at this level. The written dialogue was a pretty decent effort from what I expected.