There's Something Wrong with the Children

Margaret and Ben take a weekend trip with longtime friends Ellie and Thomas and their two young children (Lucy and Spencer). They stay at a campsite and plan a night of drinking and telling stories about each other. The next morning, everyone hikes through the woods and come across an old building with a cave. Lucy and Spencer are drawn to a well in the cave, seeing a green light that none of the adults seem to notice. They return to camp and Margaret offers to watch the kids while Ellie and Thomas go on a romantic date. The children express a strong desire to return to the cave, but Margaret and Ben do not allow them to leave. The following morning, Lucy and Spencer are missing, which sends Margaret and Ben panicking. They desperately search the woods, and Ben remembers the cave that they encountered. He rushes over and discovers Lucy and Spencer standing at the edge of the well before falling into it, presumably dead. Ben is freaked out and returns to camp to explain things with Ellie and Thomas, but discovers Lucy and Spencer running around the campsite, unscathed. During lunchtime, the children act maliciously around Ben, seeming to give him bug-infested snacks and putting a severe amount of pills in Thomas’ drink. It is revealed that Ben is taking mood stabilizers, which causes tensions to rise within the group, as Ellie and Thomas immaturely accuse Ben and Margaret of being irresponsible adults for letting their kids out of their sight, much to Ben's anger as he justifiably points out their bad parenting to their children.

Later, Ben is in the house and notices Spencer holding a shovel. Ben tries to pull it out of Spencer's grasp, but accidentally hits Spencer, seemingly killing him. Ellie and Thomas are overcome with grief and as Lucy points at Ben, making them foolishly blame him then rudley kick Ben out. Ben takes Margaret to the well, convinced that the children are not who they seem. He is unable to find the bodies and Margaret returns to the site to comfort Ellie and Thomas. Margaret discovers that Ellie is dead and Thomas is missing, and realizes that Ben was telling the truth. She hides in the campsite and Ben is overpowered by the children. He is thrown into the well before reappearing alongside the children. Margaret is cornered and an injured Thomas tackles Ben, sacrificing his life in the process. Margaret grabs the car and leaves, before encountering Spencer and the children, asking for her to join them. Margaret slams on the gas pedal and aims her car straight at the group.

• Alisha Wainwright as Margaret
• Zach Gilford as Ben
• Amanda Crew as Ellie
• Carlos Santos as Thomas
• Briella Guiza as Lucy
• David Mattle as Spencer
• Ramona Tyler as Park Ranger

In November 2021, There's Something Wrong with the Children was announced as part of Blumhouse Productions and Epix's movie deal, with Roxanne Benjamin directing with T. J. Cimfel & David White writing the screenplay, with Zach Gilford, Amanda Crew, Alisha Wainwright and Carlos Santos starring in the film.[2][3]

There's Something Wrong with the Children was released digitally in the United States on January 17, 2023, by Paramount Home Entertainment, and on March 17, 2023, by MGM+.[5]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 63% of 32 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "Conceptually strong but uneven in execution, There's Something Wrong with the Children is a serviceable horror movie that could have been much more."[6] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 53 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[7]

Christian Zilko of IndieWire gave the film a grade of A-, writing: "While it's a premise we've seen many times before, [the film] punches above its weight by doing all the little things right."[8] Randy Myers of The Mercury News gave it 3/4 stars, saying that director Roxanne Benjamin "never allows 'Children' to overstay its welcome, resulting in a scare package worth seeking out."[9] Meagan Navarro of Bloody Disgusting gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "While it isn't a complete reinvention of the subgenre, it offers enough fresh ideas to set this one apart from the pack."[10]

Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave the film 2/4 stars, saying that it "takes WAY too long to get anywhere interesting—at times, it feels like a script that would have suited an anthology format like Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities better than a feature's length".[11] Noel Murray of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the children "become fairly standard-issue devil-imps, causing damage that only occasionally seems personally targeted toward the grown-ups, in scenes too blandly reminiscent of dozens of other 'cabin in the woods' movies."[12]

• There's Something Wrong with the Children at IMDb 
• There's Something Wrong with the Children at Rotten Tomatoes
• There's Something Wrong with the Children at Metacritic