The Innocents: With Great Powers, Come Children with Great Irresponsibility

By Thom Ernst

Rating: B-plus

There is a lot to unpack in The Innocents, writer/director Eskil Vogt’s psychological thriller, a film about but not for children.

Vogt (screenwriter, The Worst Person in the World) offers the story of four children, each outsiders in their own way, who discover they have abilities that separate them from their peers.

Well, most of them do. Ida (Rakel Lenora Fløttum), who moves to a new housing complex, is merely double-jointed. Still, in Ida’s mind, that’s plenty different enough. Even her friend is impressed. Ida’s enthusiastic display of her ‘talent’ in the face of her friend’s more impressive talent isn’t just touching for its innocence, but offers a unique glimpse into the workings of a child’s mind. 

Rakel Lenora Fløttum as Ida and Sam Ashraf as Ben in Eskil Vogt’s THE INNOCENTS.

The other children are Anna (Alva Brynsmo Ramstad), Ida’s older noncommutative autistic sister, and Aisha (Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim), a young girl with vitiligo, a skin discolouring disease. Ida displays telepathic abilities. The sole male in the group is Ben (Sam Ashraf), whose ability to move objects extends to willing others to commit to his will.

A few movies like The Bad Seed (which, by the way, Eli Roth told me he plans to remake - still waiting), Eden Lake, and We Need to Talk About Kevin effectively provoke the fear of psychopaths in the making. But the more prevalent fixture in the genre tends to exploit innocence as a disguise to mislead gullible adults swayed by the charm of a smile and good manners—I’m looking at you, The Good Son and Mikey.

 The children in Vogt’s film can be violent and cruel. But in films where nasty kids do nasty things, The Innocents is a breed of its own.

Yes, the children engage in malicious acts, but even the worst of them acts on a seriously underdeveloped sense of right and wrong. Okay, perhaps that does read as evil, but within the context of the film, these malicious extremes resonate more tragic than horrific. Some will disagree and, as evidence, will refer to an alarming scene that won’t be revealed here - not to avoid spoilers but to prevent any unnecessary triggers, primarily mine. 

Vogt has said in interviews that the idea for the film came to him after having children of his own. That’s quite a damning statement considering the movie’s dark take on child’s play and the misfires of logic that can occur in a young mind.

But I don’t think Vogt is far off in his assumptions. There is a reason we’re reluctant to give our kids that BB gun they keep asking for. It’s not out of fear that our children would commit atrocities as in Vogt’s film, but because most parents recognize that irresponsibility does have consequences, and that children are more likely to act on instinct rather than reason.

Vogt masterfully—undoubtedly infuriating for some - understates the horror in his film by filtering it through a bright summer Nordic sun while adults mill about oblivious to the violence around them.

It must have been tempting to fold into this film a morality tale about ineffectual parenting. But the adults in the film are mostly loving and attentive, despite Ida’s parents being focussed on Anna’s needs and Aisha being raised by a single parent. Only Ben experiences actual neglect, though it is not clear to what extent. Ben’s response to his loneliness and occasional bullying is heartbreaking. His actions are the actions of a child acting out with seemingly little thought to consequences, motivated by fear, frustration, and anger. 

It would be ignorant to make a blanket claim that all children who commit heinous crimes are naïve to the extremity of their actions. It wouldn’t take Google long to disprove such a claim with real-life horrors.

But even if Vogt makes room for empathy, it does not diminish the film’s disturbing take on the workings of a child’s mind when given the power to dictate survival on their own terms. 

The Innocents is directed by Eskil Vogt and stars Rakel Lenora Fløttum, Alva Brynsmo Ramstad, Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim and Sam Ashraf.  The Innocents opens in selected theatres and On Demand Friday May 13, 2022.