TADFF Reviews – The Children and Lobotomobile

Christmas vacation is anything but peaceful as children begin turning on their parents.

Directed by – Tom Shankland

Written by – Tom Shankland, Paul Andrew Williams

Starring – Eva Birthistle, Stephen Campbell Moore, Jeremy Sheffield, Rachel Shelley, Hannah Tointon, Raffiella Brooks, Jake Hathaway, William Howes, Eva Sayer

Seriously impressive movie! The trailer had made me feel uncomfortable and the movie only made it worse. Since I have kids it’s always hard watching anything involving kids. It seems to intensify any emotion that may be involved and this one involved fear. I can’t really explain exactly how it makes me feel other then to say uncomfortable.

There’s a scene where one of the adults picks up one of the kids and the kid slaps him. It’s nothing major and it’s over as quick as it started but the second the slap is heard it sends this pound to my gut. And that’s just near the start of the movie. Those shots to the gut keep coming and get more intense as it goes on. All the elements combine to really deliver a superb experience. Quick edits, screaming kids, confused, angry and scared adults yelling and shots that made the whole crowd release a unified ‘Ooooohhhhh’ come together to make what may be my new favorite film of the festival. I just find it hard to release that crown from Vampire Girl!

The acting is amazing, considering half of the actors are probably under the age of 12, and boy can those kids pull off creepy. It’s got one of those semi cliffhanger endings where you’re pretty sure you know what’s going to happen but aren’t force fed it by the director and it’s very satisfying. I was worried for awhile that the film would start to journey into an out there kind of sci-fi direction, you know, aliens have messed with the kids minds or something like that but it stays it’s course. Granted, the reasoning behind the kids behaviour walks the fine line between the real and the unreal, but since we’re never given the ‘scientific answer’ it allows you to just accept that the kids are getting really crazy and enjoy it.

Now, sometimes (or almost all the time) most of the characters do some pretty stupid things. Some people may find them unlikeable but I found that instead of being people you hate, they actually interact with each other in ways that are very realistic. It doesn’t make them the nicest of characters but it left me feeling like I was watching actual couples instead of a ‘movie couple’. It is a horror movie so they have to do the typical stupid horror movie things. I mean, they have cars there, why sit around and wait to get slaughtered when you could just drive away, but then the movie would only be 20 minutes long and that’s no good!

This is a must watch for everyone and I’m sure you’ll have as good a time as I did watching it.

LOBOTOMOBILE

Sara St. Onge, 6 min

Throughout his career Dr. Walter Freeman performed nearly 3,500 lobotomies in 23 states and most of these operations were performed with a hammer and ice-pick. Its a story that was just begging to become a musical.

This was pretty funny and has a nice little catchy tune to go with it. It’s just what the title suggests as a doctor drives around in an RV offering up lobotomies to any takers. It’s got that corny kind of fun vibe and was just plain fun to watch. You can check the trailer right hereon Facebook.

Under the marquee – Will