Amelia's Children

A sharp little horror movie.

“Amelia’s Children” is still poised and grotesque enough to be charming, even when it doesn’t seem to be messing with audiences at all.

Worn down and familiar as some of this kooky genre exercise can be, it ultimately confirms that Abrantes has what it takes to make the movies feel young again.

A hilariously awful collision of soap opera and horror movie, “Amelia’s Children” teeters so precariously on the cliff top of comedy that one wishes the director, Gabriel Abrantes, had dared to kick it over the edge.

Cotta has a face fit for farce, with puzzled, wide eyes that Abrantes takes great pleasure in pulling the wool over. It’s enough fun just to see him get taken for a ride.

When we love our media out of irony, what happens when media begin to take notice and edit themselves accordingly? Amelia’s Children is a Portuguese horror film that, for better or worse, leans on the side of camp to the very end.

It does not entertain, scare, or surprise and it is not even funny. [Full review in Spanish]

Amelia's Children is a tedious horror movie with mostly wooden acting in a story that has more insipid moping than any real scares. The characters react to twisted family secrets in ways that are hard to believe. The movie's ending is atrocious.

Amelia's Children is a Portuguese horror movie that fails to elevate its generic premise into a compelling story despite a largely capable cast.



Abrantes allows this absurd but utterly familiar horror story to coast on unrealized potential.