Director: József Gallai
Year: 2025
Country: Hungary/USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Taking a special advisory job, a woman recounts what happened where the children from a summer camp she worked at mysteriously disappeared, but as she investigates, she comes to learn a dark connection between the place and a local legend involving black-eyed children.
Review:
Overall, this was a rather fun genre effort. Among the better factors to be had here is the strong build-up that provides a fantastic starting point for the general sense of unease that arises from using such a topic in this manner. Starting with her initial rush to get to a new job and the need to take what’s given to her, which puts the arrival at the camp fairly early on, so that the majority of the first half uses her footage recording how unnatural it is to be called away to work at an abandoned camp in the woods really is, gets this off to a strong start. Using the abandoned camp setting works incredibly well, generating plenty of atmosphere not just from the woodland setting, where the stripped-down trees and lack of ambient noise leave quite an impression, but also from the general sense of disarray found in the empty buildings and hallways, which makes a strong impression. The gradual reveal of the tragic backstory of the camp and how it connects to the incidents at the camp provides some chilling and unsettling imagery, which, while most of it comes from the stories being told about it, gives the film a lot to like.
As much as this one works with its atmosphere and build-up, it also falls just slightly short due to the reliance on using dialogue and stories to drive this along. Very rarely are the children even present on screen, as its found-footage format keeps everything strictly on her as she stumbles around, trying to figure out why everyone vanished. That leaves the scares to be focused mainly on the hints of children laughing or freaking themselves out while traveling through the camp that quite little of the film's genuine genre scares. A lengthy monologue that helps to fill in some of the gaps about what’s going on is immensely effective in that regard, but for a film as short as this, it also limits the amount of time it can feature the attempts at explaining the threat of the children. Since they’re barely on-screen and most of the lore we get about them is limited to that specific monologue about them, they don’t remain threats throughout the film, and we don’t know their purpose for what they’re doing. These are what manage to bring this one down slightly.
Overview: ***/5
A worthwhile if slightly problematic genre effort, there’s enough to like here that it’s worthwhile enough for what it is, while being let down at times by other factors. Those with an appreciation for this style of genre fare, who are big found-footage aficionados, or who are fans of the creative crew, will have a lot to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.
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