An innocent family trip to visit some relatives turns into a violent blood-fest as their children begin to turn deranged and attack them viciously. Throughout the event the adults try to fight for survival as the onslaught of violence gets worse; and what is indeed worse, turns out that it may not just be their children that are going crazy either.

The movie itself does not seem like anything really different, going off of the title alone; but the phrase “never judge a book by its cover” tends to come to mind here for me. Had I just looked at the title I probably would have passed it off as maybe an Orphan knock off, but boy would I have been wrong.

The movie starts off during around Christmas time, with a family whos last names are not revealed, visit with more relatives under the same case. It starts out innocently enough, celebration about the reunion, the kids getting to play around the house and the adults chatting away about their random bullshit. For the first few moments everything seems perfectly normal, but it is not until you start to make a bit more headway into the movie that things start to change.

From what I would understand as possibly a virus or bacteria, from what I thought to be a frog, could have possibly been the cause of the two familys pain. The scene clearly depicts something to this effect, which gives me reason to believe this is the problem. But needless to say, it is not right away that the infection begins to take place, because the children still act their normal bratty selves.

It is not until even later into the movie that the real action starts to take place. Like the shot from a gun at the racetrack the kids suddenly snap and go on their little rampages! They start off by killing one of the adults what seems to be accidentally, at least to the adults, the all knowing viewer sees the situation obviously in a different light.

It is from that point on that the terror starts to sink into the family. Each member of the family blames the other in their fight for survival, either coming together or tearing each other apart. Eventually the survivors need to find a way to not only stop the children, but escape the rural family cottage alive. It is at this point that some of the survivors realize that perhaps this seemingly local problem may be more widespread than they had seen before.

Overall the movie got me angry in all the right ways: whether it was the snot-nosed psychotic brats doing their bloodthirsty thing, or the parents too dense to realize what is going on and taking it out on each other, I could honestly say I wanted to see a huge blood bath on both sides! In trying to keep things short, I do want to add I was rooting for the gothy girl the whole time.

In the end, the actors did a good job at whatever role they wanted to play: the pedo uncle, the overprotective aunt, the stupid father or the bitchy goth. Even the kids did a good job, despite their lack of lines in the movie... they really did act like good brats! The story itself was rather original I thought, which is always refreshing... and to boot, it had good violence and gore scenes (not just against the adults, but the children too). Above all, it played with your thoughts and feelings very well if you are into these kind of conflicting movies, like some of us are. For those who wouldn't mind seeing the violence, and like the sound of the plot, this movie is for your... those of you who are a little more on the soft side for kids, may want to avoid it.






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