Children of Sin: Bible-Thumping Horror We've Seen Before

By Thom Ernst

Rating: C+

Children of Sin is a low-budget thriller with the always-primed-for-villainy Christian propagandist taking the heavy lead. 

Personally, I have no issue demonizing the self-appointed piety of hard-core religious extremists, even though it’s become something of an overused horror trope. 

Jo-Ann Robinson in Children of Sin. Some people are just content to beat the Devil out of you.

Even so, I am in full support of a horror film’s right to delve into bad intentions. And when it comes to profiling staunch moral guardians as being a step away from fanatical outrage, count me in. But such insane righteousness has recently been portrayed in full gory glory to far better effect in director Ti West’s X. 

Children of Sin is a movie that seems happy just setting up the crime-scene and not having to give much thought to motivation and plausibility. The film stalls in a refusal to budge from even the stalest of tropes. Example: Those at the retreat who are most vocal about being “converted” are the ones most plagued.

It takes place in a religious retreat claiming to convert the sinful (the sexual promiscuous, homosexuals, and angst-ridden teenagers) into idealized Christian soldiers. It is, in fact, a warehouse of torture and evil. But it’s hard to determine the success rate given that no one ever seems to leave. 

Children of Sin steals some of its mojo from Hansel and Gretel. Tammy (Keni Bounds) is an unstable mother who drops her teenage children Emma (Meredith Mohler) and Jackson (Lewis Hines) off at Abraham House, the reclusive retreat in hopes of getting them to conform to the unreasonable demands of their soon-to-be stepfather, Robbie (Jeff Buchwald). 

But Robbie, although a fantastic provider, is a controlling, sexual predator, a facet of his personality that Tammy either doesn’t see or chooses to ignore. 

Director Christopher Wesley Moore (who also wrote the script) stars as Hank, the nephew and number #1 henchman to housemother, Mary Esther (Jo-Ann Robinson). Prior to the arrival of Hank and Mary Esther on screen, the film suffers from the stiff and stagey performances of the leads. Things do get more interesting, even more convincing, once Emma and Jackson arrive at the retreat, and there are a few creepy, even disturbing scenes of religious punishment as fetish. 

Children of Sin works best as a late-night curiosity for the insomniac too numbed by exhaustion to be critical. 

Children of Sin. Directed Christopher Wesley Moore. Starring Jo-Ann Robinson, Keni Bounds, Jeff Buchwald, Meredith Mohler, Lewis Hines.  Streaming now on Prime Video.