A young woman takes a housekeeping job. The child she’s helping to look after has supernatural powers which she uses to summon zombies to kill anyone she suspects of having killed her mother.

I love creepy kids in horror movies. Rosalie in this film is fantastic. Not only does she command a trope of zombies to do her dirty work for her, but she also seems obsessed with death, drawing pictures of her foes being bumped off and laughs like a drain when death is mentioned.

The Child is very gory in places which is, I suspect, why it was seized and placed on the Video Nasties list.

Another aspect of the film which gives it an unsettling vibe is that it’s obvious all of the dialogue was re-recorded in a studio which gives the characters an eerie detached air which works really well.

The Child is an example of a horror film you might inadvertently find when flicking cable channels whilst not knowing what to watch and absolutely loving it.

In the UK, The Child was retitled Zombie Child.

3.5 out of 5 stars