Children's Play (2001) User Reviews (11)

Better than Average French horror

[jluis1984 · 6/10 · 28 December 2005]

In this French movie, loosely inspired by Jack Clayton's "The Innocents" (which was based on Henry James' novel "Turn of the Screw"), we have an interesting story, outstanding acting, and very good classy old school film-making, how can that go wrong? why are all the negative reviews? For the most part, the praise and over-hype this film received set the expectations too high, so the disappointment is understandable.

It is a straight forward horror story set in an old apartment in France, where after the mysterious visit of two strangers, the children of a young couple begin to act strange and their mother begins to wonder what is going on with her family. Her health problems and the demons of her past make worse her situation.

Compared to "The Innocents", "The Others" and "The Shining", the film really appears as a weak dull attempt of a horror movie; but if you ignore the over-hype and watch it with low expectations, the film is a pleasant surprise and a promising step forward in director Laurent Tuel's career.

Actress Karin Viard plays Marianne, the young mother who faces the strange behavior of her beloved children; and she gives a very good performance. Her outstanding performance asher character goes to psychological torture is one of the most notable characteristics of this film. The acting of her children is very good too, and it is surprising considering their young age. The rest of the cast go from average to good, which is a shame because Viard and the kids do very good jobs.

The film moves very slow, as old films used to do; this old school style of film-making probably will not be of the taste of those used to modern day fast paced scary movies, but will surely be appreciated by fans of 60s horror movies. The movie has that claustrophobic feeling and eerie atmosphere, so characteristic of films of those years.

The script has some troubles, as it leaves many plot holes and while probably it was the intention of the writers to leave things unexplained, I was left with the sensation that many things went unexplored and that a lot of the story's potential was lost.

The direction is OK, but never reaches the imagery of Kubrick, Amenabar or Clayton. As I wrote above, watch it with low expectations and you'll be greatly rewarded. 6/10

A kind of restrained fear

[pifas · 5/10 · 28 October 2003]

I'm obliged to say that the best thing in this movie is the oppressive feel of something terrible coming ahead. Even if you know the event already, 'cause the director warns you from the beginning about it, in most of the times you can't help but sense a kind of a danger, a fear that you don´t see but you do feel. On the other hand, the bad thing in Un jeu... fall on the screenplay, that is sometimes incoherent, and it's pace is rather slow. Also it's atmosphere doesn't help much in setting a scenario for originality because as we watch it, never ceases to give strong reminders of films as The innocents, The others and even the mexican one El libro de piedra (The book of stone). And alright, there´s no gore but I don't think the plot need it; if this films succeeds in anything, is in creating a malevolent space and it is precisely where the family moves: their luxurious flat.

Of course it has some flaws but all in all hits right on the target on it's proposal for a psychological fear. Why does happen what it happens? Because there's evil in the air since the old brothers came in for a glimpse at their old home. It's what set everything for what's coming (or what happened; it depends). And I think is fair with itself in this matter and the portrait of child corruption, in the killing of all innocence, hence the name. Nevertheless, this movie is good beyond just an experience for accomplish a wider range of foreign horror cinema. It may not have the best of thrills, but neither is wasted time nor money.

Some neat images and revelations the movie does nothing with

[Groverdox · 6/10 · 18 November 2022]

"Un jeu d'enfants", translated as "A Child's Game", is a French horror flick which is clearly inspired by Henry James' classic work "The Turn of the Screw", or perhaps more particularly by "The Innocents", the 1961 classic adaptation of that story.

You know the drill: it's a woman pitted against two kids who may or may not be evil. Or is she just crazy? Well, here the psychological aspects of the story are pretty much gone and we know for a fact there's something supernatural going on here.

Perhaps it's the lack of the psychological angle that kind of neutered the story? You see, I saw this movie on TV ages ago back in the 2000s when it was fairly new, and I never forgot some of the images from it, but I couldn't remember much else. Having just rewatched it I have realised that this was because there was nothing much else to remember about the flick, except to file it away in my brain as another adaptation of James's novella.

The movie has occasionally striking imagery that grab the attention, true, but it doesn't have much of an atmosphere and nor does it say a whole lot about these images. Something that I hadn't seen handled in horror a whole lot, interestingly, is dealt with here: the way the mother, suffering from visions that are making her act crazy, instigates sex with a couple of strange men who immediately take her up on her offer, no questions asked.

The fact that so many people will have sex with a married person with a family without a second thought is disturbing and this movie calls that to mind, but doesn't do anything with it, or any of the other lights it shines on human psychology.

The lights go on, get our attention, and then they go off again. The movie is content to get our attention sporadically and let us lose interest the rest of the time.

And the climax, when the real bad guys finally turn up, is striking only for how ridiculous it is, an anti-climax in the only throughline the movie had: shocking imagery.

I feel possessed...

[dbdumonteil · 2 January 2004]

French directors are mostly talented in cinema but if there's a domain in which they don't shine, it's fantastic cinema. Of course, there are exceptions: "Les Yeux sans visage" (1959) but you can also quote "Baxter" (1989) by Jérôme Boivin. If these French fantastic movies are that good, it's because they're original and they bring something new to the fantastic. Unfortunately, a major part of French directors take their inspiration from foreign and mainly American movies. As a consequence, their movies are deprived of originality. This is exactly what you could put forward with "Un jeu d'enfants" (2001).

When you're watching this film, it's difficult not to think about other movies. "Shining" by Kubrick, "the Haunting" by Robert Wise and especially "The Innocents" by Jack Clayton,. Besides, the director with "un jeu d'enfants" wanted to pay a tribute to Clayton's movie. Well, I'm obliged to recognize that this intention isn't really convincing and it is mainly due to an uninspired and mostly inconsistent script.

All right, there's sometimes a feeling of fear but I think that there's no dramatic progression and certain sequences fall into the ridiculous. Moreover, a lot of points remain ambiguous and the director doesn't give clues to explain them: if the two children are possessed, how do they kill Daphné, the baby-sitter? Why do they like going to the cellar? Why have Charles Berling and Karin Viard got visions?

Finally, "un jeu d'enfants" is a disappointing and even pointless movie.

Boring

[jhs39 · 3/10 · 2 June 2003]

Dull French horror movie about a frazzled mom who believes that her two small children plan to harm her and her increasingly short-fused husband. Early scenes with children playing a secret game that the mother is to be excluded from, for now, are promising and remind of the chilling Ray Bradbury story Zero Hour. Unfortunately, the movie never goes anywhere interesting from there and the filmmakers leave the audience with many more questions than answers: What exactly are the spirits of the old brother and sister trying to accomplish and why? If they died as children why do they appear as old people? How exactly did they manage to make one of the characters commit suicide? This movie is a complete dud. If you like evil children movies you would be much better off watching The Innocents (which this also recalls in its early scenes) or the Spanish flick Who Could Kill A Child.

Not great but still good

[jdaniels-4 · 7/10 · 12 October 2003]

This is not a great movie but it's quite a good one with an eerie atmosphere - ideal viewing for the early hours of the morning. I missed the beginning so had to catch up on what it was all about - but I could tell right away that those kids were up to no good. As another reviewer noted, if you're thinking of starting a family then avoid this film - you may be persuaded otherwise! Maybe the denouement doesn't explain much but hey, this is a horror movie. The characters that played Mr & Mme Worms were (I thought) hideous in the extreme & enough to give you nightmares. A quietly creepy and menacing film.

Les Enfants d'enfer

[writers_reign · 4/10 · 28 November 2012]

If I'd known that Karin Viard was so short of a bob or two that she had to sign on for this piece of cheese I'd have slipped her a few quid from my own pocket. She's far too good an actress to waste her talents on this, as is Charles Berling. On the other hand there was one positive: Ludovine-I CAN act with my clothes on but I'd rather not -Sagnier, is killed off early. Only problem is she'll be back. Meanwhile it's difficult to see WHO can get any credit out of this rubbish. How many times - The Omen, Rosemary's Baby, The Innocents, The Bad Seed - are they going to wheel out the 'evil' child/children scenario. As dmonteuil has pointed out the French, with very rare exceptions, don't really do horror, so why not leave it to other countries and do what France does best - polars/policiers, comedies, dramas, rom-coms, surely that's a wide enough range.

A Very Scary French Horror Movie

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 26 July 2004]

In Paris, Marianne (Karin Viard) and Jacques (Charles Berling), and their son Julian (Alexandre Bongibault) and daughter Aude (Camille Vatel) compose a happy upper class French family, living in a huge apartment (for European standards). The children have a baby-sitter, Daphnée (Ludivine Sagnier) and Jacques has just been promoted in his job. The family's life changes when Marianne receives two weird old visitors, the Worms (Pierre Julien and Manuela Gourary). They ask Marianne for permission to visit the apartment, where they live when they were children. Marianne receives a phone call from her husband, and when she returns to the living room, the strange couple was leaving the children's room. From this moment on, the most mysterious and bizarre things happen with Marianne and Jacques, affecting their lives. I liked this very scary French horror movie a lot. It has the same atmosphere of `Stanley Kubrick´s The Shining', the characters are well developed, and the tension increases in an intelligent way. The viewer is never 100% sure whether the mother or the father is getting deranged or the children became evil, until the end of the plot. Unfortunately, there is a great flaw in the script regarding the visit of the Worms: why have they waited so long to come back to the apartment? My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): `Jogos Sinistros' (`Sinister Games')

Another turn of the screw

[cedric.flament · 9/10 · 8 July 2001]

Remember The Possessed? In 1961, Jack Clayton filmed that oppressive story about a young unexperienced lady nursing two innocent kids and facing some supernatural appearances. Or was it her that filled all the atmosphere with her own fears and neurastenic obsessions? Tuel, french director, do the same excellent thing with his movie: two little kids trapped in a huge maze-like parisian flat, between a father who is on the edge of madness and a mother who lost a son a few yew years ago and never succeeded to overgo the drama. Are the two intruders at the beginning of the thriller real persons, ghosts from a past tragedy, or just a projection of the mother (excellent Karin Viard)? Despite an end which sounds just too much of a final explanation, Laurent Tuel's movie is a little masterpiece of building anguish without easy effects, and suggesting horror that can hide istelf behind each of the dorrs of the flat. Wonderful. NAturalist fantasy at its best.

the best horror french movie since a long time

[troon · 9/10 · 21 February 2003]

Even french critics have regarded this movie as an insignificant movie, I think they were wrong.

The atmosphere was terrific, characters very well interpreted by two excellent actors : Charles Berling & Karin Viard. Without heavy special effects, scenario succeeds to really frighten us.

I was shocked for a while after the last image plays.

I really loved this movie.

Don't look to this if you're expecting a child or if you want to have one :)

Polanski like horror thriller

[searchanddestroy-1 · 4 October 2023]

You think - at least I THINK - about some Roman Polanski's movies when you watch this film: LE LOCATAIRE, ROSEMARY'S BABY, REPULSION; some kind of domestic horror, "home" horror, horror among neighbours, the same family, involving elements, characters in whom the audiences could recognize themselves. There were batches of this kind in French and American movie industries, even now in 2023. It is quite good, efficient, but if you are used to this kind of plot, you'll not be that surprised. But, it's not boring at all, Karin Viard and Charles Berling are as excellent and convincing as usual. The director Laurent Tuel is rather prolific for a French film maker and he provides all kinds of topics. Something though in the storytelling. When the investigator searches about the Worms family, who visited Karin Viard, at the beginning, this cop is explained that this family died several years earlier, the father killed his whole family before setting fire in his apartment. And a couple of minutes later, this cop tells Karin Viard the father Worms died killed by his own kids....