In being perfectly honest right up front, I’m going to state that it’s difficult to effectively review a feature like The Black-Eyed Children (2025) on its own because given all practical appearances the story as presented is entirely incomplete. (FYI: anyone interested can see that there’s already a listing on IMDB.com regarding the fact that its sequel is in production, and I’ve been assured as much by the creator himself.) The first installment really only sets the parameters around which this world has been established: in fact, there’s no way of knowing precisely how much of the first chapter’s various players will bob and weave throughout the second, nor how much of the mechanics of the presented High Strangeness might continue or change given whatever new circumstances might come to light. Please keep in mind that, functionally, I find myself somewhat limited to critiquing the mechanics of the piece as opposed to what’s truly happening here, so take what I have to say with a grain of salt.
Furthermore, I occasionally remind readers that – as a young’un – I grew up reading a slew of vintage crime thrillers, the kind of which taught me to keep an eye out for certain clues at misdirection along the way. This formative experience had the downside of forcing me to evaluate damn near everything I watch, and it had me questioning why certain sequences in film and television projects were assembled one way as opposed to another perhaps easier approach. Usually, this happens because the storyteller wants you – the audience – to focus on what’s taking place right here and to never mind what’s going on over there. (Of course, sometimes this is nothing but budgetary constraints, but I’ll dismiss that for now.) It’s the same thing a good magician does with his or her sleight of hand: the best filmmakers employ a bit of that especially if they’re intent on dazzling you with the big reveal.
That said, it’s rather easy for me to pronounce that the central story to The Black-Eyed Children is really only beginning. This is the kind of effort that Horror fans generally embrace because it keeps them captivated with wondering exactly what’s going on, and this enthusiasm will likely bring them back to a second, third, and maybe even a fourth helping. Mind you: answers must emerge – and they’d better drop some greater details in the sequel – or else those same fans will depart for greener (if not bloodier) pastures mostly because Part One – while intriguing – never once establishes a foundation other than a place and hints of an event. Anything else of certainty remains a matter of one’s opinion versus another’s, and that’s no way bring people together.
(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
Furthermore, I occasionally remind readers that – as a young’un – I grew up reading a slew of vintage crime thrillers, the kind of which taught me to keep an eye out for certain clues at misdirection along the way. This formative experience had the downside of forcing me to evaluate damn near everything I watch, and it had me questioning why certain sequences in film and television projects were assembled one way as opposed to another perhaps easier approach. Usually, this happens because the storyteller wants you – the audience – to focus on what’s taking place right here and to never mind what’s going on over there. (Of course, sometimes this is nothing but budgetary constraints, but I’ll dismiss that for now.) It’s the same thing a good magician does with his or her sleight of hand: the best filmmakers employ a bit of that especially if they’re intent on dazzling you with the big reveal.
That said, it’s rather easy for me to pronounce that the central story to The Black-Eyed Children is really only beginning. This is the kind of effort that Horror fans generally embrace because it keeps them captivated with wondering exactly what’s going on, and this enthusiasm will likely bring them back to a second, third, and maybe even a fourth helping. Mind you: answers must emerge – and they’d better drop some greater details in the sequel – or else those same fans will depart for greener (if not bloodier) pastures mostly because Part One – while intriguing – never once establishes a foundation other than a place and hints of an event. Anything else of certainty remains a matter of one’s opinion versus another’s, and that’s no way bring people together.
(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“A young woman takes a job at an autumn camp in the woods, only to arrive to find that all the children have mysteriously disappeared. But as night falls, much to her dismay, some of them return.”
Often, I find myself reminding the readership that I’m one of the last remaining fans of the whole Found Footage Format subgenre of Horror filmmaking. Without going to any great details, I just love the imperfections and freshness that comes with something told from a technologically unique point-of-view, even though a fair amount of narrative trickery on the part of some talented craftsmen usually gets in the way of pure, unabashed originality. Though I appreciate why so many have kinda/sorta left it behind, I’ll almost always seek out and explore offerings big and small that continue to try doing something different with it; and that’s mostly what brought me to The Black-Eyed Children.
However … Children both is and isn’t found footage. (I know, I know: I can feel the screeching now, but hear me out.)
Like a great many projects, Children really only makes liberal use of such found footage, cleverly inserted said raw material around a great deal of documentary-style storytelling, if not even a few rather conventional scenes involving darkly-clad investigator of the beginning and ending suggesting that something even more nefarious could be occurring in this space. And an argument could be made that a good deal of its purported found footage is questionable as to why it’s even in here much less adds significantly to the plot, making me suspect that – as I said above – there’s more to this story than writer/director József Gallai and co-writer Roy McClurg Jr. wanted to divulge in Part One. (For those watching closely … yes, that is indeed Gallai filling in the shoes of the fateful Man In Black in the motion picture.)
Excited with the prospect of hew employment, Claire Russell (played by Kata Kuna) can’t wait for the chance to get down to working with the children of St. Beatrice Camp. Giddy with delight, she begins videotaping her reflections and decides to continue filming her moments at this isolated campground. Alas, she’s somewhat astonished to find the place essentially deserted on her arrival. Strolling around the unlocked buildings and through the nearby forest, she finds nothing more than a handful of abandoned toys and chilling silence. Concerned that something has gone horribly wrong, she telephones her employer – Mr. Donahue – only to have the young female receptionist announce, “We’ve been waiting for you, Claire,” before hanging up.
“A young woman takes a job at an autumn camp in the woods, only to arrive to find that all the children have mysteriously disappeared. But as night falls, much to her dismay, some of them return.”
Often, I find myself reminding the readership that I’m one of the last remaining fans of the whole Found Footage Format subgenre of Horror filmmaking. Without going to any great details, I just love the imperfections and freshness that comes with something told from a technologically unique point-of-view, even though a fair amount of narrative trickery on the part of some talented craftsmen usually gets in the way of pure, unabashed originality. Though I appreciate why so many have kinda/sorta left it behind, I’ll almost always seek out and explore offerings big and small that continue to try doing something different with it; and that’s mostly what brought me to The Black-Eyed Children.
However … Children both is and isn’t found footage. (I know, I know: I can feel the screeching now, but hear me out.)
Like a great many projects, Children really only makes liberal use of such found footage, cleverly inserted said raw material around a great deal of documentary-style storytelling, if not even a few rather conventional scenes involving darkly-clad investigator of the beginning and ending suggesting that something even more nefarious could be occurring in this space. And an argument could be made that a good deal of its purported found footage is questionable as to why it’s even in here much less adds significantly to the plot, making me suspect that – as I said above – there’s more to this story than writer/director József Gallai and co-writer Roy McClurg Jr. wanted to divulge in Part One. (For those watching closely … yes, that is indeed Gallai filling in the shoes of the fateful Man In Black in the motion picture.)
Excited with the prospect of hew employment, Claire Russell (played by Kata Kuna) can’t wait for the chance to get down to working with the children of St. Beatrice Camp. Giddy with delight, she begins videotaping her reflections and decides to continue filming her moments at this isolated campground. Alas, she’s somewhat astonished to find the place essentially deserted on her arrival. Strolling around the unlocked buildings and through the nearby forest, she finds nothing more than a handful of abandoned toys and chilling silence. Concerned that something has gone horribly wrong, she telephones her employer – Mr. Donahue – only to have the young female receptionist announce, “We’ve been waiting for you, Claire,” before hanging up.
At this point onward, Children descends into the usual and somewhat predictable circumstances a good many found footage films exploit. Once empty spaces are suddenly populated with supernatural clues – i.e. disturbing children’s drawings, a mysterious journal promising strange doings underfoot, telephones behaving in a way highly suspect, conundrums of time and space, etc. – so it grows increasingly clear that something not only went horribly wrong at St. Beatrice but also such High Strangeness persists. Indeed, Claire grows increasingly despondent once she stumbles across an old media card (which her laptop rather conveniently still has a supporting port) that bears a video message from Donahue (Bill Oberst Jr.) to her which promises things are likely only to go from bad to worse.
So … this is what one gets when one checks into Camp St. Beatrice. It isn’t long before the black-eyed children emerge from the woodwork and begin terrorizing Claire with their tauntings, hauntings, and more. While there are some obvious suggestions that no harm is intended, our narrator reacts probably in the way which any of us would: cut off from any means of escape, she’s left with trying to outsmart these spectral entities in ways that probably appear less-than-smart in retrospect. As she came to this place willingly, it’s progressively clear that – even as she eventually suggests – Claire is right where she’s supposed to be, evil be damned.
Chiefly, the problem with Children is that its narrative only shows enough material to leave viewers asking questions. Why is it that Claire experiences déjà vu throughout the compound? Could the journal she finds, in fact, be something she wrote when she was here before? What is the physical illness she suffers, coughing up blood in a few sequences, and why has she apparently never sought treatment? Who is the dreaded Man in Black, and how is it he walks unimpeded by law enforcement throughout an active crime scene? And – for that matter – who even called in the authorities given the fact that we’re never shown any other living, breathing people on camp property? When are we? Is this the present? The past? Or could this be something we’ve yet to see?
Such ambiguity will almost always work against the narrative’s forward momentum, but because Children is highly suggestive of something David Lynch perfected – nothing is what it seems – I’m willing to give Gallai, McClurg, and their cast and crew the breathing room necessary to keep spinning this yarn. (It ain’t Camp Crystal Lake, after all, so the gore and bloodshed is nowhere in sight.) I’d like to know where this is heading, and that anticipation helps to keep me focused even though details are exceedingly short in supply. In some ways, I felt I knew less when I finished the picture than when I started, but that could be just the way my deductive reasoning works.
Yes, there are hints to a gate between worlds and even some mystical time placement all through the script; and yet there’s no real answers provided anywhere. Most players are thinly-defined – if at all – so I’m left at a loss to conclude what a handful of scenes were truly saying or if they were even necessary. At 70-minutes running time, the film lags in a few spots – Claire does the usual herky-jerky camera work for sequences that could easily be trimmed, and I found myself on several occasions wondering why (oh why) she felt she needed to videotape some of the minutiae of her experience. For example, if you honestly believed you were running away for dear life would you logically then stop and place your smartphone and/or video camera to give your next interaction the best possible film angle? I know I wouldn’t but call me old-fashioned. Still, I can’t help but ponder if this story might have been presented better in a more traditional format, one that would allow us less cinematic trickery and more character interactions.
So … this is what one gets when one checks into Camp St. Beatrice. It isn’t long before the black-eyed children emerge from the woodwork and begin terrorizing Claire with their tauntings, hauntings, and more. While there are some obvious suggestions that no harm is intended, our narrator reacts probably in the way which any of us would: cut off from any means of escape, she’s left with trying to outsmart these spectral entities in ways that probably appear less-than-smart in retrospect. As she came to this place willingly, it’s progressively clear that – even as she eventually suggests – Claire is right where she’s supposed to be, evil be damned.
Chiefly, the problem with Children is that its narrative only shows enough material to leave viewers asking questions. Why is it that Claire experiences déjà vu throughout the compound? Could the journal she finds, in fact, be something she wrote when she was here before? What is the physical illness she suffers, coughing up blood in a few sequences, and why has she apparently never sought treatment? Who is the dreaded Man in Black, and how is it he walks unimpeded by law enforcement throughout an active crime scene? And – for that matter – who even called in the authorities given the fact that we’re never shown any other living, breathing people on camp property? When are we? Is this the present? The past? Or could this be something we’ve yet to see?
Such ambiguity will almost always work against the narrative’s forward momentum, but because Children is highly suggestive of something David Lynch perfected – nothing is what it seems – I’m willing to give Gallai, McClurg, and their cast and crew the breathing room necessary to keep spinning this yarn. (It ain’t Camp Crystal Lake, after all, so the gore and bloodshed is nowhere in sight.) I’d like to know where this is heading, and that anticipation helps to keep me focused even though details are exceedingly short in supply. In some ways, I felt I knew less when I finished the picture than when I started, but that could be just the way my deductive reasoning works.
Yes, there are hints to a gate between worlds and even some mystical time placement all through the script; and yet there’s no real answers provided anywhere. Most players are thinly-defined – if at all – so I’m left at a loss to conclude what a handful of scenes were truly saying or if they were even necessary. At 70-minutes running time, the film lags in a few spots – Claire does the usual herky-jerky camera work for sequences that could easily be trimmed, and I found myself on several occasions wondering why (oh why) she felt she needed to videotape some of the minutiae of her experience. For example, if you honestly believed you were running away for dear life would you logically then stop and place your smartphone and/or video camera to give your next interaction the best possible film angle? I know I wouldn’t but call me old-fashioned. Still, I can’t help but ponder if this story might have been presented better in a more traditional format, one that would allow us less cinematic trickery and more character interactions.
Lastly, I’d be a fool is I failed to give a shout-out to actor Oberst, Jr. for his slim work in the picture. Like Claire’s work, his is chiefly ‘found footage,’ and it amounts to an incredibly effective ten-minute uninterrupted sequence wherein he properly sets the stage (to a small degree) for the core mystery of who, what, when, and where that propels the film. The man delivers a real gut punch that probably woke up those who may’ve nodded off; and it’s the kind of performance that elevates creepiness to the level required these days. Well done, hats off, and let’s see more of that in Part Two!
The Black-Eyed Children (2025) was produced by McClurg Productions, Nguyen Bros. Production, Rix Cafe Texican, Car Trek, Chizfilm Productions, and a few other participants. (A full accounting – for who like it – is available on IMDB.com.) A quick Google.com search indicates that the film is presently available for streaming on Amazon Prime and Hoopla Digital. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, I still found the provided sights-and-sounds mostly very, very good: there are several night-time bits and even some dark interiors that needed a bit more light, frankly, and I’m not convinced I saw everything I needed. Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? As I viewed this one via streaming, there were no special features under consideration.
Recommended.
2025’s The Black-Eyed Children is a paranormal flick that incorporates documentary-style storytelling along with some traditional sequences and even a bit of found footage to cast a Folk Horror spell about a particular time and a particular place wherein our universe may not function by the established rules of physics. While it’s easy to conclude that something is afoot, there’s still too much opacity across too much of it, though I am holding out hope that the forthcoming second chapter might dispel some of those questions with the answers needed to make all of this work beyond the obvious spookiness.
In the interest of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at McClurg Productions provided me with complimentary streaming access to The Black-Eyed Children (2025) by request for the expressed purpose of completing this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
The Black-Eyed Children (2025) was produced by McClurg Productions, Nguyen Bros. Production, Rix Cafe Texican, Car Trek, Chizfilm Productions, and a few other participants. (A full accounting – for who like it – is available on IMDB.com.) A quick Google.com search indicates that the film is presently available for streaming on Amazon Prime and Hoopla Digital. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, I still found the provided sights-and-sounds mostly very, very good: there are several night-time bits and even some dark interiors that needed a bit more light, frankly, and I’m not convinced I saw everything I needed. Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? As I viewed this one via streaming, there were no special features under consideration.
Recommended.
2025’s The Black-Eyed Children is a paranormal flick that incorporates documentary-style storytelling along with some traditional sequences and even a bit of found footage to cast a Folk Horror spell about a particular time and a particular place wherein our universe may not function by the established rules of physics. While it’s easy to conclude that something is afoot, there’s still too much opacity across too much of it, though I am holding out hope that the forthcoming second chapter might dispel some of those questions with the answers needed to make all of this work beyond the obvious spookiness.
In the interest of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at McClurg Productions provided me with complimentary streaming access to The Black-Eyed Children (2025) by request for the expressed purpose of completing this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
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