When she visits her parents, a young woman is confronted by their plans for the future.
Written and directed by Joshua Morgan, Children of the Pines has some interesting ideas, but they get lost in the unfortunately bland rest of the film. The is some supernatural elements here but not nearly enough to keep the attention away from the slow movie story with not much to offer viewers beyond spending time with the parents who are clearly not right in the head and their daughter and her ex they love so much this many years later. Yes, there are some mildly creepy moments here, but they are too few and far in-between to keep the attention. This is not entirely terrible, but it’s not much to entertain either. It all feels rather bland. The settings are just ok, the story is bland with long bouts of nothing, the characters feel like the blandest people you could meet on any random day in any random small town. The hope that the presence of a supernatural element is quickly dashed by how long it takes to really get to it and how it doesn’t become much of anything beyond “ah, ok, that happened”. This is something that feels really frustrating when the premise of a family going with the supernatural to continue their legacy is something that could have gone much darker or much weirder.
The cast here does what they can. Their parts are a bit on the, well here’s that word again, bland side. The performances here aren’t back, but they feel rather uninspired with a few ok moments that makes you think there might be something better coming soon and then have those new hopes dashed just like the ones mentioned above. Kelly Tappan is doing what she can to makes this a more interesting watch as young adult Riley but one woman alone cannot make a whole film like this be more than it is.
In terms technical abilities, the film has its issues here too. The cinematography provides good framing most of the time, but the lighting is a mess. A simple lighting class could have saved this movie from looking like only natural light was allowed most of the time with a few ceiling lights allowed to stay on here and there. This is a good example how to not light a film, the example of what to avoid. The scenes are often too dark, unevenly lit, and just not allowing the characters and cast to shine.
Children of the Pines is one of those films that sounds great on paper but loses in execution. The cast is trying most of the time and Kelly Tappan shows that no lack of light or lack of good story development is going to stop her from doing her best. Overall, this film is a major letdown and one that becomes more and more frustrating to watch as it moves along its story beats. The base ideas are interesting, but their development is just not on point here.