Horror Movie Review: Child Eater (2016)

Creating a new and impressive monster/bogeyman is no easy task. We’ve seen so much in horror that leaving a mark on your psyche with a memorable ‘bad guy’ is worthy of massive praise. Child Eater makes a bold attempt to do this but does it succeed?

Set in a small town that has a legend surrounding a man who was suffering from macular degeneration. A horrible disease, it drove the man insane and he came to believe that he could keep his sight by eating the eyeballs of people, mainly kids.

Opening in impressive fashion, we see a young girl wandering the streets. Shot from behind she seems to be hurt but how? We don’t know yet. Eventually a woman stops her car and gets out to help and it is here we see that one of her eyeballs have been removed.

An awesome and impactful start, Child Eater never manages to reach these heights again but still turns out to be a good horror flick.

The lead character is Helen (Cait Bliss), a young woman who is babysitting a child named Lucas (Colin Critchley). Lucas tells Helen about a man who he has seen watching him but Helen doesn’t believe him, of course. After all he’s just a kid with an active imagination.

Lucas is telling the truth though, something that Helen comes to realise forcing her to face off against an evil that isn’t human anymore.

Child Eater gets a lot right. A small budget doesn’t hold things back as we get some great make-up and gory effects. The villain is kept in the shadows for most of the film hiding any issues that might exist with his look and if there were any they weren’t noticeable. He looks great, unique and scary. The best thing about the movie, his past is kept shrouded in mystery suggesting that we could easily see more films about him.

What isn’t so memorable though is the rest of the film. Cait Bliss is a decent lead, sinking her acting chops into a role that has a bit more definition then you might expect. She’s it though unfortunately as the rest of the cast do little.

Most are fodder for our villain but at least we get some good scenes of eye gouging and ripping.

Shot in darkness a lot of the time, some scenes can be a pain to watch as you try to work out what is happening now. It might fit the tone of the movie, a very dark and twisted film but it doesn’t make for an enjoyable watch.

That being said, an interesting villain, good pacing and a decent turn from Cait Bliss makes Child Eater a recommended watch.