Child Eater (2016)
Starring Cait Bliss, Colin Critchley, Jason Martin, Dave Klasko, Brandon Smalls
Written and directed by Erlingur Thoroddsen
Finding funding to expand his short film Child Eater into a feature, Columbia Film School alum and native Icelander Erlingur Thoroddsen is generating a little bit of indie buzz after premiering the picture at the first annual Brooklyn Horror Film Festival. Why it took Brooklyn so long to have a horror festival of its own we may never know, just as we’ll wonder why a movie called Child Eater hasn’t been made before. It’s the kind of title you can’t wait to tell your non-horror friends with kids that you’re watching, just to disgust them and make them roll their eyes. Luckily for them, they still actually have their eyes, which is a lot more than some of the characters in (once more with feeling!) Child Eater can say.
With an appearance reminiscent of the Creeper in Jeepers Creepers and Max Schreck with sunglasses, the boogeyman is real in Thoroddsen’s film; and in this particular iteration, he (it?) loves ripping out and eating (or sometimes just discarding) his victims’ eyeballs in order to keep from going blind. After all, it’s much harder to hide in a kid’s closet if you keep running into walls. A killer with a cane just isn’t as frightening.
The legend goes back decades, but it’s not until a curious pre-teen named Lucas (Critchley) goes missing that his babysitter (Bliss) must venture out into the woods to confront the child eater myth up close and in person.
The mythology surrounding the killer isn’t exactly far-reaching but on a purely surface level there’s just enough backstory and creature design to establish some interest in the character. Mainly because Thoroddsen is Icelandic, it feels like this idea could be traced back to some far off tale in Scandinavian folklore, and who knows? Perhaps Thoroddsen was inspired by stories he heard as a child. Either way, the possibility of his version of the boogeyman being part of a grander fable lends a little horror cachet to the creature. It’s also pretty fun to watch him violently stab his dirty thumbs into the eye sockets of bored cops and bohunk boyfriends.
Child Eater is certainly a solid addition to a film festival enjoying its inaugural year and it won’t leave horror-savvy audiences feeling like they just wasted a slot, but is it worth seeking out once it finds a release date? That can be somewhat subjective, but it is a well-made, well-executed indie with a compelling creature and some memorable shots and sequences, even if it is a little pedestrian and cliché at times. The makers of Child Eater aren’t trying to make an icon, but in no small feat, the premise leaves you wanting more.
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Film
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