DVD Review: Children Of A Darker Dawn

By Brad Henderson

Every once in a while we see a film with a killer idea that doesn’t realize its full potential. The plot for Children Of A Darker Dawn (originally titled Railway Children) is better than the film itself. I feel it didn’t go the lengths it should have. I’m saying this with the utmost respect towards the filmmakers themselves. I’m not saying what they did was wrong, but they did have something special and went in a different direction than I thought they were going to.

Children Of A Darker Dawn is about a virus that’s killed off the adult population and children and teens are the only ones left. Two sisters travel across the land seeking food, shelter, and safety each and every night. One night they hole up in what they believe is an abandoned building and are awakened by the screams of a young girl getting beaten. After befriending her, she takes them on a journey to the city where they encounter a small community trying to survive.

Now this sounds like it is going to be an apocalyptic tale with a Lord Of The Flies spin, but we receive an apocalyptic Young and the Restless drama but with kids. I like dramatic events with kids because small things can be very important to children, but this film just has a bunch of people whining and not really doing anything about the situation. When dealing with kids there is something special, a sense of banding together to overcome the shit that they are dealing with. Lord Of The Flies, Monster Squad, Super 8, and the recent I Declare War all are films where kids rely on one another in order to face obstacles along with their fears.

Children Of A Darker Dawn throws that kind of camaraderie out the window and decides to go with the more dramatic childish side instead of the kids trying to be adults and figuring things out. Sure they are kids, but kids still can make rational decisions and not act like complete fools the entire time. (The only time all the kids aren’t irrational assholes in a horror movie is in Children Of The Corn.) My point is that they made an annoying drama out of this excellent idea rather than something that could have been special, brutal, dramatic, and action-packed. I realize that some of that relies on a decent budget but you can still make something more worthwhile with your money than having kids bicker for an hour and a half.

Yes, I feel like an asshole writing this but it is just my opinion. I don’t want to steer you away from watching this because I’m sure there is a fan base for it. I just might have missed something and I’m the doofus.

Children Of A Darker Dawn was released on DVD through MVD Visual on December 17, 2013.