‘Amelia’s Children’ Review – An Adequate New Spook For Horror Heads

If there were one word to describe Amelia’s Children, it would be still. The camera stays troubled with one subject at a time, often for extended stretches of close-up study. It’s slow, contemplative, and admirably creepy. Everything feels intentionally washed out, drained of all color and, eventually, hope. No matter what, this is a determined vision that accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do: to scare, to spook, to unsettle. Whatever word you want to use, Amelia’s Children manages it, as any horror movie should. It’s got good bones, you could say.

Dreams spill over into visions, and visions into nightmares. A rather unassuming story about a man finding his lost family quickly falls apart into a haunted house horror romp that takes those familial themes and dresses them up with somber blues, deep shadows, and a pair of terribly harrowing white eyes. The film is set to a score that is almost constantly present, stalking up behind scenes and jumping in and out to suit them, making uncomfortable room for the sounds of crying children. Can you guess who’s?

You get the picture. It’s without a doubt a bit gratuitous at times, but the lengths to which it goes to hammer the horrors home are infallible; it’s going to get you at one point or another. Between the scareful sequences of primary focus are far less compelling strains of character development and awkward dialogue. They work to move the whole thing forward, but feel constrained and unnatural.

Similarly, technology (and specifically phone calls) is used to facilitate exposition in an exhaustingly lazy manner. You’ve seen the type before, though in much worse films than this one, which is what makes the presence of such here so disappointing. The plot easily could’ve carried its own weight in a manner more organic, if only it had more time.

This narrative is a notch too ambitious for the 91 minutes it’s given. With more time on the clock, those exasperated segments of exposition could become apt storytelling; the information on hand is interesting and even necessary, but the delivery here feels forced. It’s a real bruise on the final image.

The film also makes an unneeded sacrifice in stretching Carloto Cotta across three performances; the purpose is clear, and it makes conceptual sense, but all three characters suffer in execution. There isn’t enough (aside from a malignant wig) separating the trio of characters from one another to substantiate sharing the same actor, leading to, again, one feeling like the other with a different haircut. Brigette Lundy-Paine is redemptively strong in the lead and, despite only appearing in a few flashbacks, Alba Baptista is a bright spot on the whole.

Anabela Moreira embodies the villainous role, too. She’s given multiple shots just to sit and stare at the frame, allowing an occasional smile, or scowl, to curl her lips depending on the scenario. It becomes hard to tell the difference between the two after a while, only inflaming her fear factor and giving the film an edge in memorability. 

This isn’t Gabriel Abrantes’s first time in the director’s chair, and though this may not be his premiere effort, his tact shines through; Amelia’s Children is a rock-solid exercise in claustrophobic horror. The film is more than good enough to have earned its limited theatrical run, but its presence on VOD allows all horror fans a chance to give it a go. Kill the lights, heat up some popcorn, and take this hour-and-a-half endeavor for safe scares and dependable thrills. Good enough is not always a negative, especially not in this case.

Amelia’s Children is currently playing in select theaters and is available on VOD courtesy of Magnet Releasing. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF6eUddnYtc]