Film

The Innocents

Name: The Innocents
Genre: Horror, Drama, Fantasy
Released: 2021
Cast: Rakel Lenora Fløttum, Alva Brynsmo Ramstad, Sam Ashraf, Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim, Ellen Dorrit Petersen

Other titles called The Innocents: the 1961 film, the 2016 film, the 2018 series (Netflix).

A Norwegian film about four children who discover hidden powers during one summer and, unsupervised, push their abilities into genuinely unsettling territory. It's eerie and deliberate, more interested in dread than jump scares, and built on the discomfort of watching innocence curdle into something stranger. For those who want horror that's patient and psychologically odd.

TMDb rating

3.5

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like slow-burn unease where the menace grows out of ordinary childhood games, and you're happy to sit with a film that trusts silence and sunlit forests to do the frightening.

Skip it if you want a quick scare or a clear plot engine; this one moves at a deliberate, watchful pace and leaves much of its meaning hanging in mood rather than explanation.

What it asks of you: Settle in for just under two hours of patient, unhurried watching, with close attention to small gestures and quiet looks, as the tone darkens gradually rather than all at once.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Let the Right One In2008

A Swedish vampire film that treats its young protagonists with absolute seriousness, building supernatural horror from isolation, loneliness, and the vulnerability of children. Quiet, elegant, and deeply affecting.

But It moves slowly and leans on atmosphere over spectacle. Some find the pacing glacial; others find it meditative.

A Dark Song2016

An Irish occult drama where two damaged people perform a lengthy supernatural ritual together. Like *The Innocents*, it's more interested in the emotional and psychological weight of power than in spectacle or gore.

But Very dialogue-heavy and emotionally draining. The ritual sequences are repetitive by design, which some experience as tedious rather than hypnotic.

The Witch2016

A 1600s New England folk-horror film about a family's suspicion and paranoia, filmed in an unsettling, formal style. Shares *The Innocents*' commitment to slow-building dread and moral ambiguity.

But Austere and bleak with minimal plot movement. Dialogue is sparse and archaic. If you want your horror to comfort you, this won't.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Innocents

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer2017

Both treat children as conduits for forces beyond conventional morality, and both refuse to make those forces comprehensible or comforting.

Yorgos Lanthimos's film about a surgeon and his family haunted by a mysterious young man. Shares *The Innocents*' interest in how power operates between people and how children can be vessels for something fundamentally wrong—but here the horror emerges from rigid, almost mythic inevitability rather than chaos.

But Deliberately artificial in tone and pacing. Dialogue feels scripted and strange; the tone sits somewhere between horror, thriller, and dark comedy. If you want naturalism, this is its opposite.

Goodnight Mommy2015

An Austrian horror film centred on two children and their mother's mysterious post-surgery behaviour. It shares the same willingness to make childhood itself the source of strangeness and unease.

But The third-act pivot is genuinely difficult to watch. Some will feel manipulated by its shift in perspective rather than impressed by it.

We Need to Talk About Kevin2011

A shattering portrait of a mother and son, examining how a child can become fundamentally 'wrong' and what that does to a family. Dark, challenging, and deeply human beneath the horror.

But It's grief and guilt without relief. Lynne Ramsay's fractured editing makes it demanding to follow, and the subject matter is genuinely bleak.

His House2020

A South African and British film that uses supernatural horror as a framework for trauma, displacement, and grief. Shares *The Innocents*' refusal to separate the emotional from the fantastical.

But Heavy subject matter—trauma, racism, poverty. The horror is a vehicle for serious themes rather than entertainment, which isn't for every mood.

A Tale of Two Sisters2003

A South Korean horror film about two sisters, their stepmother, and a beautiful house that may be haunted—or worse. Gorgeously composed and deeply unsettling, with a devastating final act.

But The third act recontextualises everything you've seen, which some experience as brilliant and others as a betrayal of the story you thought you were watching.

Raw2017

A French-Belgian coming-of-age horror about a vegetarian teenager at veterinary school who develops a taste for raw meat. Uses body horror and appetite as metaphor for awakening and transgression.

But Graphic and visceral in ways that go beyond gore—sexual and bodily in a way that's deliberately discomforting. Not subtle; some will find it exploitative rather than meaningful.

Come True2020

Both use the experiences of children—their vulnerability, their literal inability to be believed by adults—as the source of genuine cosmic wrongness.

An indie sci-fi horror about a homeless teenager enrolled in a sleep study that goes increasingly wrong. Shot in neon-soaked compositions and a dream-logic style. Shares *The Innocents*' interest in young people in altered states discovering something that shouldn't exist.

But Very visually stylised and abstract in its plotting. The narrative is deliberately vague; some will find it atmospheric and others will find it frustratingly opaque.

Possession1981

Both understand that power—supernatural or psychological—can emerge from relationships and proximity, and both allow that power to be genuinely disturbing rather than plot-serving.

Andrzej Żuławski's hallucinogenic Polish-Italian horror about a marriage collapsing into nightmare, featuring a creature born from psychic anguish. Utterly transgressive and visually overwhelming. *The Innocents* is controlled; *Possession* is ecstatic horror, but both believe in the physical reality of the unseen.

But It's chaotic, transgressive, and sometimes incomprehensible. Made during the director's genuine marital breakdown, it feels genuinely unstable. Subtitled. Not rewarding if you want coherence or comfort.