With notable collaborative works alongside Joachim Tier with The Worst Person in the World (2021) and Thelma (2017), and directing and writing his own works such as Blind (2014); Eskil Vogt is taking Norwegian cinema by storm. With his latest feature, The Innocents, Vogt has written and directed again another film rooted around the human psyche.
In this supernatural thriller, The Innocents explores the sinister yet nostalgic world of children navigating morality outside of parental guidance. In the summertime, a group of four children become friends as they covertly reveal their unnatural hidden powers. Bonding over their discovered abilities, a malevolence begins to test the boundaries of morality and friendship.
With the turbulence of moving apartment complexes in the middle of a Norwegian summer, we follow Ida (Rakel Lenora Fløttum) who perceived innocent, but secretly takes pleasure in physically hurting her older sister, Anna (Alva Byrnsmo Ramstad), who has regressive non-verbal autism. The sisters befriend Ben (Sam Ashraf), who has telekinetic talents, and Aisha (Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim) with telepathic abilities. Outside the enclosed playground boxed in by apartment complexes, the four venture out to the forest away from the eyes of their parents to test their abilities, only for it to turn cruel and sinister.
Cinematographer, Sturla Brandth, created a visual world where the camera is just as inquisitive as its characters through a range of closeups. Despite it not necessarily serving plot, the personalised shots correlate with the sometimes narrow and singularly focused attention of children on objects of interest. The then juxtaposition between these close shots to extreme wides strengthen themes of haunting doom and threat. Despite the abnormal displays of psychic and telekinetic abilities, the film does well to build an atmosphere of realism. The colour palette is naturalistic and VFX kept for gruesome details with no over-the-top superpower VFX play that often ruins cinematic works. Not only does it lean into realism more than most conventional horror films, it does well to not be excessive. The film does well to be quiet and subtle, serving its unsettling tension that eventuates and concludes to a satisfying end. The unsettling essence of the film comes from the minor acts of violence, like witnessing someone walk with glass in their shoe. A particular scene involving a cat was confronting and incredibly disturbing to witness; a scene easily a catalyst into a not so innocent story (pun was unfortunately intended).
The Innocents delves into the secretive lives of children and their fundamental understanding of good and evil. It is an interesting take to witness kids learn independently what they perceive as morally right and wrong; where the line is drawn from innocent and naive exploration to intentional neglect of empathy. Does killing a worm make a child fundamentally evil? Does the curiosity and testing of a cat’s ability to land a high fall call for concern? Or does the concern of a child’s evil only become clear when obvious, like the murder of another? The film spikes the question of when it is just the innocence of a child navigating their moral compass, to a fundamental evil agenda within. Obviously taken to the extreme, it is a curious case to ponder alongside the idea of children living double lives when on their own.
The film displays exceptional talent from its child actors. Rakel Lenora Fløttum carries a maturity within her craft despite her age, and this can be said for all the young actors. The only call for question is in the casting choice for an able-bodied actress to be playing a character with autism. Too long has cinema neglected and discriminated with casting appropriately for characters they seemingly wish to do justice, but indeed achieve otherwise in casting. Representation is needed not only in the script, but wholistically as a production.
For a story titled The Innocents, the film feels everything but. Despite it centred around the lives of four children, the film displays some of the most disturbing, toe-curling scenes in cinema this decade. From your daytime horror of Midsommar (2019), the abnormality of Chronical (2012), and the nostalgia of Bridge to Terabithia (2007); this film is an amalgamated cinematic feast that’s worth the uncomfortable quality of its scenes.
The Innocents comes to Australian cinemas 19th May, 2022.
written. by Chloe Bobbin