The Innocents

The Innocents

Four children become friends during the summer holidays, and out of sight of the adults they discover they have hidden powers. While exploring their newfound abilities in the nearby forests and playgrounds, their innocent play takes a dark turn and strange things begin to happen.

  • Released: 2021-09-03
  • Runtime: 117 minutes
  • Genre: Drama, Horror, Thrillers
  • Stars: Rakel Lenora Fløttum, Alva Brynsmo Ramstad, Sam Ashraf, Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim, Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Morten Svartveit, Kadra Yusuf, Lisa Tønne, Nor Erik Vaagland Torgersen, Irina Eidsvold Tøien, Marius Kolbenstvedt, Kim Atle Hansen, Birgit Nordby
  • Director: Eskil Vogt
 Comments
  • mason25 - 4 May 2024
    Nearly perfect
    Whilst it wasn't a grand masterpiece, it was definitely a front runner in the genre.... except that that genre was NOT horror, and it was NOT mystery. It was a psychological thriller, heavy on the psychological, ver6 light on the thriller.

    The actresses and actors were phenomenal, especially given their ages, I would honestly put this at miles ahead of the dozens of slasher/horror/thriller movies that I've watched in the last 6 months.

    It could have leaned a bit more in to Anna's autism IF that played any part in her abilities or not, or she just happened to be autistic. Same for Ida, she had a power, didn't do much with it in the last 15 minutes.

    It also alluded to many other kids in the area either having their own powers, or at least being able to sense them in others. That's just me though, I hate leaving things unfinished/unexplained.

    Huge negative for whoever did the subtitles/translation, sometimes words just weren't subtitled, guess I didn't need to know what was said..... or translated wrong, as a few times the same words were spoken, yet different subtitles given. I speak not one word of whatever it was, but back to back usage of the same words, definitely shouldn't result in different subtitles.

    Going to check out the directors and writers other movies now.
  • raptorshark - 28 November 2023
    animal torture nooo 😭
    Honestly it doesn't matter to me how good this movie ultimately is because of the super uncomfortable and disturbing animal torture scene; if you don't like the beginning of John Wick this is worse.

    I understand they were getting the point across that the kids have no morals or empathy, but I wouldn't have watched this had I known. I read reviews on here first too and nobody mentioned it! Serial killer sht man "he was a quiet boy, kept to himself mostly" vibes which is scary on it's own. Also why was there no security cameras in those areas?

    I was rooting for the kids to die the whole rest of the movie. (just those specific kids, not all the kids)
  • darkstar-93392 - 2 July 2023
    Unique but missed
    It wasn't a scary film but a psychological thriller.

    It had a seamless entry into showing the children's powers and their growth with using their abilities. The character development was very powerful and well done.

    The movie lost most of its suspense after Ben did not die on the bridge.

    The final 20 minutes was very underwhelming. There are many ways that the movie could have ended to add more suspense. The final 'battle' between Anna and Ben was a serious let-down. I am happy that the director didn't make the kids have a full-on anime style battle in a park, but the death of Ben left no questions for the viewers. There was nothing left up to the imagination of the viewer at the end.

    The children were fantastic actors.
  • TheEveningSoother - 2 November 2022
    Potentially great. Ultimately, not really.
    This film had the potential to be a real gem, in my opinion: The 9 and 10 stars reviews are not lying when they praise its well crafted moodiness, its somewhat fresh take of a not-so-fresh horror topic, its psychological (and social) undertones.

    But for me, the indecisiveness of Mr. Vogt between a child-like POV and full-blown realism killed the film stone dead: In the best case scenario is owed to the dedication of maintaining that sense of eeriness and isolation at all cost; in the worst, to laziness.

    Whichever the case may be, the audience ended up with:

    1. A premise too outrageous to be plausible, and yet too unambiguously rooted in reality to be expressionist (I'm not a stickler for fully exposed plots, but the random presence of several "gifted" kids in the same block of flats is just ridiculous).

    2. Dreadful actions which pays extremely vague consequences, if any (parents seems rather chill when faced by clear signs of abuse toward their autistic child; after two freaky murders in a row in the same area, still there is no presence of authorities in sight; in Norway corpses left to rot in summer don't smell, and little girls are unfazed by their pet disappearance).

    3. The cat (to the reviewers who mocked the cries of outrage for that scene because "it's fake", I'd say that is also a horror trope old and lazy that doesn't belong in any relevant film that came out after the '90s unless is titled "John Wick". Using animal cruelty just to showcase the starting point of an escalation of violence is the most unimaginative trick in the book, and I gladly avoid films that relies on such trope. I would have done the same with this one, if they paid me the courtesy of a trigger warning).

    At the end of the day, artistically speaking "The Innocents" is graced by a good atmosphere and some striking scenes, whilst plagued by the lack of a credible and full-fleshed structure.

    Unfortunately, for me the former doesn't go anywhere near of balancing out the latter.
  • mouseepa - 22 September 2022
    Do you like slow entertainment, kids and somwhat disturbing scenes?
    For starters I just want to say that this kind of movie really reminded me of "The Blair Witch Project".

    The kind of "horror" that put a lot of work in to the introduction, and never really makes any progress until towards the ending.

    Just as you start thinking, "maybe something is about to happen", just sit down and relax, because no, that something will never come.

    To sum it all up, this is more psychological than horror really. There is nothing scary, and to actually call this a horror movie is a fault.

    This movie is also for those that like to sit still and really take their time trying to understand what kinds of feelings the author wants you to capture.
  • martoxley - 24 August 2022
    Great film, very original.
    Firstly films this good are very rare, even the average rating of 7 on here is too low. I watched this film without reading any reviews. But I have to say this was an excellent watch. Such a very original film. Very dark and foreboding. A few ridiculous reviews saying about animal cruelty, which is ridiculous I mean do you really think it was real??? I really like Scandinavian films, as they seem to be highly original like Let The Right One In. The acting by the children in the film was so refreshing and spot on especially the autistic child.

    Absolutely beatfifuly shot, and pretty disturbing.

    Highly recommended.