The Innocents (2021) spoiler free review
The Innocents (De uskyldige) is a 2021 Norwegian supernatural triller film that was released on the US on April 2022. The film it’s available to stream on Amazon prime video. Written and directed by Eskil Vogt the film starts Rakel Lenora Fløttum as Ida in her film debut. The film had it world premiere at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival in July 2021.
During the bright Nordic summer, a group of children reveal their dark and mysterious powers when the adults aren’t looking.
Official plot
IFC Midnight acquired the distribution rights in the US on September 2021 while streaming at the Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas on the same month. It had a limited release on the United States on May 13, 2022. A fun fact about the film is that the actress who plays Ida’s mother, Ellen Dorrit Petersen, is Ida’s actress, Rakel Lenora Fløttum, mother in real life.
My opinion
The film follows a family that it’s moving to a new building during the summer holiday meaning that only building there’s no much people or kids for the daughters to play with. The first 15 to 20 minutes of the film serves as an introduction to the family on the other kids that will see throughout the film. This film remind me to Hatching, a Finnish body horror film that I just review last week. On the review I said that that film remind me of Midsommar (2019) since it plays throughout the day on bright daylight meaning dad just like the others this film doesn’t rely on the horror elements that we see on almost every films.
This film has a protagonist Ida and Anna who is the oldest and autistic meaning that she doesn’t really talk she only makes sounds and is not able to comprehend most of the situations of the daily normal life. Since there are not much kids on the building Ida it’s forced to play with Anna something that she doesn’t precisely like because of her sister’s condition. Soon she will meet Aisha and Ben who are practically neighbors. Soon they will discover that all of them all together they have some type of supernatural powers of course things will take a dark twist.
This film is also a slow burn but with a difference that it’s way longer than the others this film is 1 hour and 57 minutes long. The ending of the film leaves on a cliffhanger to the viewer to interpretation of what it meant. Although the film is not 100% horror it’s classified as one and it’s a must watch for fans out there so don’t miss this masterpiece now streaming on demand.