Let's be honest for a moment: children are terrifying. I don't mean the prospect of having them and the responsibility that entails. I mean children, with their tiny hands and giant probing eyes. Take a child with an English accent, put a doll in her one hand and a knife in the other, and you have horror movie gold.

Because of this, Paul Andrew Williams has set himself up a winning formula with his new film, 'The Children'. And in some ways, it works. We have sufficiently wide-eyed non-adults and unwitting parents in a well-secluded area (horror movie survival tip: murderous fiends start where mobile service ends). And once the action begins, the deaths are gory enough to satisfy. There's a cursory attempt at explanation, but really, the cause doesn't matter. Here's what matters: children and blood.

But as I watched 'The Children', I couldn't help thinking back to the film that first made me realize the terror of tots. When my mother showed me 'Village of the Damned', I went around for weeks, deliberately widening my eyes and speaking in a bad British accent. Even now, I'll occasionally stare at a friend and say in a cold tone, "You're not thinking about algebra. You're thinking about…a brick wall." No one I've tried this on has responded with anything but confusion.

The movie was slow, mostly dialogue. It was in black and white, and there was no gore to be seen. Its plot involved aliens. But when the children turned on their glowing eyes and stared at the camera, you'd be hard pressed not to shudder.

According to Tony Earnshaw of the Yorkshire Post , films like The Children and Dog Soldiers signal the rebirth of British horror—a field that has been neglected since Hammer fell in the 70's. Perhaps it does. And if so, this is no bad thing. But I wonder if this new slew of low-budget horror films is going about things the wrong way.

When they remade 'Village of the Damned' in the 90's, it was an utter failure. They gave it action scenes and lots of blood. They enlisted moderately big names, including Christopher Reeve and Kirstie Alley. By Hollywood formulae, it should have been better, bigger, and more exciting than the original. It wasn't. The only notice it received was a Razzy nomination for worst remake.

The problem with 'The Children' is that, though it's a small, low-budget, British movie, it still plays by Hollywood rules. Williams has emphasized in interviews that the psychology of the situation (parents being forced to fight their own children) is the focus and the source of fear. But in practice, it isn't really. The moral dilemmas are faced and overcome quickly, to make room for more gore.

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