The Innocents

...gives a grounded background that makes the ensuing battle between pint-sized good and miniature malevolence both epic in threat and intimate in delivery.

...harnesses the terrifying malice of bored kids and blurs the line between social drama and out-and-out horror.

Clayton brilliantly uses slow dissolves to create ghostly superimpositions, and the harmless squeals of bath-time fun, or squeakings of a pencil, suggest uncanny screams.

An effective and unsettling allegory for growing up, this is the kind of low-key horror that will make you look twice at cherub-faced youngsters.