Children of the Pines review – David Lynch-style teen-angst horror takes a big leap

The emphasis is on the psychological in Joshua Morgan’s ambitious debut feature of family dysfunction, but it just doesn’t come together
Catherine BrayTue 15 Oct 2024 07.00 BSTLast modified on Tue 15 Oct 2024 07.51 BSTShareIn the prologue to Joshua Morgan’s debut feature, a mother and daughter are shown cowering in fear while a drunken man’s voice berates them. This is the background context for a surreal psychological horror with the emphasis firmly on the psychological over the horror. Cut to the present day and, in a 10-minute scene set in a therapist’s office, Kathy (Danielle J Bowman) is seeking help to mend her broken family. The grey-haired eminence sitting opposite her is reassuring. She has seen it all before. She refers to a difficult case much like Kathy’s, which her strategies helped to resolve to the satisfaction of all. You can see on Kathy’s face how desperately she wants to buy what the therapist is selling her. She needs to believe it will be OK, if she will just trust the process. “It all starts with a leap of faith,” the therapist says gently.
Needless to say, things do not proceed smoothly. The film switches to the perspective of Kathy’s now-grown up daughter Riley (Kelly Tappan). This young woman has been making a life for herself that does not involve her parents too heavily, and she’s reluctant to be pulled back into their drama, but she cautiously ventures home. To begin with, the changes at home seem merely annoying – her high-school boyfriend has somehow inveigled himself into her parents’ lives, referring to them as mom and dad, and working for her father. But before too long, mentions of “the children” clue us and Riley into the fact that something weirder is going on, and the therapist’s “leap of faith” was in fact a pretty big running jump.
Children of the Pines is an interesting film, especially for a debut, and doesn’t lack for ambition, shooting for a Twin Peaks-y blend of teen angst in rural America, with darker familial dysfunction. It doesn’t quite fully coalesce in the end; more could have been made of the considerable atmosphere generated by the first half. But if it were that easy to be David Lynch, we’d all do it, right?
Children of the Pines is on digital platforms from 18 October.