As people live their lives, we go through many different moral dilemmas. You didn’t study, so should you cheat on your test? You have no money, should you steal from the fruit stand when no one’s looking? Your child is dying — how far would you go to save them? Playing now in UK theaters is psychological horror Child, where a couple must answer that one dilemma to save their son.
With their young son running out of time, Anne and Greg are willing to sacrifice everything for one last chance to save him. But after crossing an unforgivable moral line, they find themselves trapped in a nightmare where every choice demands an even greater price.
Child, IMDB
Anne and Greg find themselves in the middle of a dangerous organ harvest-and-transfer scheme across the border, this being the only thing that will save their dying son. Nearly escaping with their lives — and finding out the true cost of the organ — they take shelter in an abandoned house. Soon after, the danger of the situation becomes more and more dire when two other individuals connected to the scheme seek vengeance. With the clock ticking on keeping the organ fresh and ready for transfer, Anne and Greg’s guilt manifests and takes over, paying the ultimate price for the life of someone else.
As a parent myself, I can only imagine what lengths I would go to to save my kid. I have accepted that I would be breaking moral and ethical rules in the hopes that my child would live a better life — and I’m sure you could make the argument that any other parent would and should. What Child does is put you up against that situation and make it so morally wrong that you almost think twice before doing so. Greg is massively ashamed yet still onboard with the plan, and Anne has come to terms with her decisions. Child doesn’t let up in showing just how much this situation sucks for everyone, and no one is left untouched by karmic retribution.
Child is a slow burn with minimal outright scares, instead focusing on strong emotional bonds that are continuously mended and ripped back apart, leaving you struggle to breathe not only under the weight or morality, but of parenthood. In dark corners, dusty rooms, and burnt, bloodied cave hideouts, our characters undergo gut-wrenching character changes; Greg, originally guilty about their son’s hospitalization, accepts the small glimmer of hope they have been given. Anne turns her anger into unstoppable perseverance, then remorse into pity. Close-ups of grieving faces let you see how tragedy changes a person.
Though there is a literal monster in Child, I would argue that the real monster here is greed and the general unfairness of the world. When people take matters into their own hands, it does nothing but hurt others needlessly — and most of the time, the people bearing the brunt of the hurt are children. Child may be beautifully filmed and a look at what ethics and honesty mean in the face of adversity, but at its core, it is nothing but pain and suffering. Horror is known for being the voice of scares, but it too can be the voice of reason, the voice of the weak, of punishment — and sometimes, of acceptance.
Because who wouldn’t give their child the world if they could?
Child is playing now in UK cinemas.
