CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT (review)

Review by Joshua Gravel

Alicia is a reporter in Argentina who is contacted by a remote orphanage looking for help.  It seems that the orphanage, which specializea in helping children afflicted with a strange disease which renders them unable to go outside in the sunlight are running out of necessary resources.

As a reporter who has tried to do her part to cover missing children and other problems affecting the disadvantaged, Alicia decides to travel to the orphanage and spend some time there in order to tell their story.  She soon realizes that all is not as it seems as she recognizes some of the children, but doesn’t know from where.

It is soon revealed that the children are not sick, they are being hunted by a secretive organization, and link to her own past has brought her there for a larger purpose.

Iván Noel’s script is certainly full of tremendous ideas and a great story that unfortunately suffers due to the film’s low budget. While the story is strong and the actors all good, the overall look of the film is flatly overlit which cheapens the cinematography.

This unfortunately isn’t Children Of The Night’s largest problem.  Presuming that my review copy is the same version as the release product, the presentation suffers greatly.  Artspoitation’s release has several major problems with the film’s subtitles.

Some of the subtitles are strangely worded to the point of distraction, two lines randomly appear in another language (possibly German), while two whole lines of dialogue at the height of a particularly tense scene aren’t subtitled at all.

If the subtitle issues with this film get fixed I would certainly recommend Children Of The Night to horror fans.  Iván Noel has indeed given us an interesting story with some new ideas and I would be greatly interested in seeing what he makes in the future. I will leave it up to Artsploitation Films to inform us as to any updates in the films presentation and release.