Un jeu d'enfants

In this French movie, loosely inspired by Jack Clayton's "The Innocents" (which was based on Henry James' novel "Turn of the Screw"), we have an interesting story, outstanding acting, and very good classy old school film-making, how can that go wrong? why are all the negative reviews? For the most part, the praise and over-hype this film received set the expectations too high, so the disappointment is understandable.

It is a straight forward horror story set in an old apartment in France, where after the mysterious visit of two strangers, the children of a young couple begin to act strange and their mother begins to wonder what is going on with her family. Her health problems and the demons of her past make worse her situation.

Compared to "The Innocents", "The Others" and "The Shining", the film really appears as a weak dull attempt of a horror movie; but if you ignore the over-hype and watch it with low expectations, the film is a pleasant surprise and a promising step forward in director Laurent Tuel's career.

Actress Karin Viard plays Marianne, the young mother who faces the strange behavior of her beloved children; and she gives a very good performance. Her outstanding performance asher character goes to psychological torture is one of the most notable characteristics of this film. The acting of her children is very good too, and it is surprising considering their young age. The rest of the cast go from average to good, which is a shame because Viard and the kids do very good jobs.

The film moves very slow, as old films used to do; this old school style of film-making probably will not be of the taste of those used to modern day fast paced scary movies, but will surely be appreciated by fans of 60s horror movies. The movie has that claustrophobic feeling and eerie atmosphere, so characteristic of films of those years.

The script has some troubles, as it leaves many plot holes and while probably it was the intention of the writers to leave things unexplained, I was left with the sensation that many things went unexplored and that a lot of the story's potential was lost.

The direction is OK, but never reaches the imagery of Kubrick, Amenabar or Clayton. As I wrote above, watch it with low expectations and you'll be greatly rewarded. 6/10

Even french critics have regarded this movie as an insignificant movie, I think they were wrong.

The atmosphere was terrific, characters very well interpreted by two excellent actors : Charles Berling & Karin Viard. Without heavy special effects, scenario succeeds to really frighten us.

I was shocked for a while after the last image plays.

I really loved this movie.

Don't look to this if you're expecting a child or if you want to have one :)

This is not a great movie but it's quite a good one with an eerie atmosphere - ideal viewing for the early hours of the morning. I missed the beginning so had to catch up on what it was all about - but I could tell right away that those kids were up to no good. As another reviewer noted, if you're thinking of starting a family then avoid this film - you may be persuaded otherwise! Maybe the denouement doesn't explain much but hey, this is a horror movie. The characters that played Mr & Mme Worms were (I thought) hideous in the extreme & enough to give you nightmares. A quietly creepy and menacing film.

You think - at least I THINK - about some Roman Polanski's movies when you watch this film: LE LOCATAIRE, ROSEMARY'S BABY, REPULSION; some kind of domestic horror, "home" horror, horror among neighbours, the same family, involving elements, characters in whom the audiences could recognize themselves. There were batches of this kind in French and American movie industries, even now in 2023. It is quite good, efficient, but if you are used to this kind of plot, you'll not be that surprised. But, it's not boring at all, Karin Viard and Charles Berling are as excellent and convincing as usual. The director Laurent Tuel is rather prolific for a French film maker and he provides all kinds of topics. Something though in the storytelling. When the investigator searches about the Worms family, who visited Karin Viard, at the beginning, this cop is explained that this family died several years earlier, the father killed his whole family before setting fire in his apartment. And a couple of minutes later, this cop tells Karin Viard the father Worms died killed by his own kids....

Dull French horror movie about a frazzled mom who believes that her two small children plan to harm her and her increasingly short-fused husband. Early scenes with children playing a secret game that the mother is to be excluded from, for now, are promising and remind of the chilling Ray Bradbury story Zero Hour. Unfortunately, the movie never goes anywhere interesting from there and the filmmakers leave the audience with many more questions than answers: What exactly are the spirits of the old brother and sister trying to accomplish and why? If they died as children why do they appear as old people? How exactly did they manage to make one of the characters commit suicide? This movie is a complete dud. If you like evil children movies you would be much better off watching The Innocents (which this also recalls in its early scenes) or the Spanish flick Who Could Kill A Child.