Th3r3s.s0m3th1ng.wr0ng.w1th.th3.ch1ldr3n.2023.h... Apr 2026

Released in early 2023, There’s Something Wrong with the Children serves as a modern addition to the "creepy kid" horror subgenre. Directed by Roxanne Benjamin, the film moves beyond simple jump scares to explore the psychological anxieties of parenting, the societal pressure of reproduction, and the fragility of long-term friendships. This paper examines the film’s narrative structure, thematic depth, and technical execution, noting how it utilizes its limited location and supernatural mystery to mirror real-world fears. 1. Introduction

There’s Something Wrong with the Children follows two couples—Margaret (Alisha Wainwright) and Ben (Zach Gilford), who are childless, and Ellie (Amanda Crew) and Thomas (Carlos Santos), who have two young children—on a weekend getaway to a remote cabin. The idyllic vacation unravels when the children, Lucy and Spencer, discover a mysterious pit in the woods and return radically changed. As Ben is the only one to notice their sinister behavior, his history of mental illness is weaponized against him, creating a paranoid atmosphere where the true horror lies in being disbelieved. th3r3s.s0m3th1ng.wr0ng.w1th.th3.ch1ldr3n.2023.h...