Movie Review – The Child Remains

Rae (Suzanne Clément) and Liam (Allan Hawco) arrive at the Mersey Inn B&B for a quiet couples’ vacation to recharge and relax before the birth of their first child. Monica (Shelley Thompson), the proprietress is happy to talk about the Inn and its checkered history as a home for unwed mothers, and Talbot (Géza Kovács) the caretaker, who’s buried more secrets than he can spill is really tired of being the bad guy. Rae’s arrival triggers something in the inn and her visions (or are they PTSD flashbacks) push her to do what she does best, uncovering the inn’s tragic past and what it might have in store for her.

The Child Remains is by no means a perfect movie, but as I love a good ghost story, it more than held my interest. I think what it wanted to be and what it became don’t live on the same block, but I give it points for trying its earnest best. Admittedly it becomes bogged down it far too much of everything to be a straightforward anything. It’s not just a haunted Inn story, where the wraiths visit the present as a dire warning. It’s not just a psychological thriller about what’s buried off the path. It’s not just a story of infidelity. It gets really complicated when there’s a weird left and it sprinkles in elements of some soul trading BUT I liked it. It was thrilling and thoughtful and suspenseful.

Yeah, I liked it a lot.

Based on the true story of the Butterbox Babies – essentially a baby farm where the babies that couldn’t be sold were murdered and buried – The Child Remains reveals are flashbacks throughout the film that hint at the horrors imprinted in the structure and Rae’s own psychological breakdown. How they intertwine manages to make sense at the end and I can only applaud that – it’s not easy to pull off and I’ve seen it done poorly before.

The Child Remains has found a distributor with Uncork’d Entertainment and will be re-released Friday, June 7, 2019, in limited theatrical release and on-demand. Save it for your stormy days and foggy nights where the house creaks a little more and the water rushing through the pipes whispers secrets you’re not meant to hear.

The Child Remains is unrated, however, if I had to guess, I’d say Rated R for sears, off-screen sexy-times, lots of blood, painful births, implied infanticide, people getting stabbed, people getting cut, lots of screams, and PTSD trauma.