The Innocents Review: A Superpowered Norwegian Thriller

Kids in horror is a tradition as old as the genre itself, with the presumed pureness and innocence of a child being juxtaposed with horrible acts of violence normally associated with deranged adults. From Who Can Kill a Child? to The Bad Seed and Children of the Corn, horror has taught us never to trust children. The best thing that The Innocents, the latest film by the co-writer of Thelma, does is combine that pre-conceived notion and combine it with a story about people discovering they have superpowers a la Akira, and explore how cruel kids with superpowers can be to each other. If only the final product was as good as the films that clearly inspired it.

Writer/director Eskil Vogt (who also wrote the script for The Worst Person in the World, which played In Competition at Cannes) fully immerses us in a world of kids, one where adults only exist in the periphery and to either annoy or comfort the youngsters, and also a world were superpowered abilities are seen as just another curiosity, like a magic trick or having flexible arms. In the middle of this, we meet Ida (Rakel Lenora Fløttum), who may look innocent and harmless, but also seems to enjoy torturing her older sister Anna (Alva Brynsmo Ramstad) by pinching her and putting glass in her shoes just to see if she reacts. The sisters move with their parents to a new apartment complex right during the endless Norwegian summer, where most kids are out for the summer holiday. Ida has no problem finding new friends, however, as she quickly befriends the shy and bullied Ben (Sam Ashraf), who appears to be able to move objects with his mind, and the outgoing and kind Aisha (Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim), who hears the thoughts of her neighbors. Aisha also seems to be the only person who can communicate with Anna, whose regressive autism prevents her from being able to speak.

Although numerous scenes take place outside in the playground, The Innocents feels rather claustrophobic thanks to cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grøvlen juxtaposing the wide shots of the forest surrounding the apartment complex with constant close-ups to emphasize how big the world is, and how little it cares about what is happening to our characters. It is likely not a coincidence that the film shares a title with Jack Clayton's 1961 adaptation of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw, which follows a governess convinced that the kids she's looking after hold a terrible and murderous secret. Vogt is interested in holding a mirror to the audience and ask how far a kid's cruelty has to go before we stop thinking of them as kids being kids. Is pinching your sister a call for attention, an act of jealousy, or pure cruelty? How about a horrific and unnecessarily long act of animal abuse? How about plain old murder?

For a film that takes a glacier-slow approach to telling its story — a second pass at editing could do wonders for this 2 hour long film that could easily be 80 minutes long — its flaws sure become apparent at the speed of light. While it is a commendable effort on the part of the casting team to include kids of color, something rarely seen in modern Norwegian movies, the racial politics of the film are ignorant at best, and outright insulting at worst. Not that you can't cast a boy of color to play your villain, but when you start from a point where even your blonde-haired protagonist can be a little cruel at times like kids can be, only to quickly back down and place only one character as a cruel and sadistic psychopath, you better justify it. It doesn't help that the film also resorts to the very tired and unnecessary trope of autism as a superpower, with Anna (played by an able-bodied actress) harvesting some secret and strong power seemingly connected to her condition.

Vogt clearly wants the audience to think of movies like Akira or Chronicle, two movies about young boys getting superpowers and turning into monsters because of it. The problem is that The Innocents never fully commits to that idea, or even to that of kids being inherently mean to each other. There are glimpses of greatness, at least during the few times we see powers being used (with rather impressive if subtle CG to boot). If only those moments were more than just reminders that The Innocents was inspired by much better movies.

Score: D

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By: Rafael Motamayor
Title: The Innocents Review: A Superpowered Norwegian Thriller
Sourced From: collider.com/the-innocents-review-cannes/
Published Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2021 16:09:32 GMT