Decades since the first film festival in 1932 (Venice Film Festival), millions of films have gone on to hit broader audiences on bigger screens and receive major awards because of it. A great medium for films to get noticed, in 2024 Children of the Pines has been featured at five different festivals, and taken them by storm.
Winner of the Best Feature at Ice CineFest, Best Thriller at Indo-French Film Festival, as well as an audience award at Gasparilla International Film Festival, now on October 18th it comes to digital platforms globally through Freestyle Digital Media. The feature directorial debut of young up-and-coming Filmmaker Joshua Morgan (Branded Red 2017, A Brothers Grace 2018), is the rest of the world ready to experience this interesting film?
Extremely unique, Children of the Pines is about a girl by the name Riley (Kelly Tappan: Friday the 13th: Vengeance 2019, Universe 25 2023) who travels home from college during the break to try and mind what she can with her estranged parents. Once she arrives she finds that her ex-boyfriend Gordon (Vas Provatakis: Age of the Empire: A Star Wars Story 2017, Static: Dawn of the Meta-Breed 2019) has begun an unusual friendship with her parents. Odd within itself, there is something mysterious and supernatural about this visit that makes things that much more intriguing.
Told from the point of view of Riley, at the beginning you get to hear her voice over a flashback of her childhood. Here you get a taste of her seemingly alcoholic abusive father and the mother hides with Riley in a closet. You then jump to the view of her mother, Kathy (Danielle J. Bowman: Legacy of Love 2021, Get Close 2023), as she is led into the introduction of a new group of sorts to help her and her husband John (Richard Cohn Lee: Karen Doesn’t Dream 2018) turn over a new leaf.
Setting the stage for Children of the Pines is a strong score by Sune Rose Wagner of The Raveonettes (who also composed the score for the Oscar-nominated movie A War in 2015) that creates music that gives an uneasy feeling. The lighting and atmosphere of the film are pristine too. You can follow along easily with the shots and angles and there is no confusion, but the only critique could be some of the acting. Amateur at moments, what saves it all is the fact that the characters are so enthralling.
With so many effective methods utilized in Children of the Pines, the end makes this film stand out and gives you an “oh my god” moment. Moody and unease, it is highly recommended you check out Children of the Pines because Cryptic Rock gives it 4 out of 5 stars.
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