Children of the Grave

As I browsed around the Amazon catalog of paranormal titles, I came across a "documentary" called Children of the Grave. It documents the lost children of an orphanage that died and were buried in a mass grave. As is so common with stories during this time period, the children were stripped of their identity and referred to by numbers rather than names. But what should have been a look at this institution turns into a "mockumentary" full of ridiculous "re-enactments" and a story that jumps all over the place to the point of being unintelligible. What should have been a somber and sobering subjects comes across as foolish.

The Booth Brothers drag this story over the coals and jumble it up so badly that you don’t know if this is supposed to be a documentary or some make shift re-enactment of the Blair Witch Project. They over dramatize just about everything about this story. They color the sky surrounding the house, they add creaking and whispers every time they go into a location, they shake and jumble the picture as though it’s become taken over by something evil. None of this is necessary. They’re talking about children who were cast away by their parents and left to starve in an institution that couldn’t take care of them. What’s with all the theatrics?

And the story jumps all over the place. It goes from the past, to the present, to random interviews, to random pictures, to an investigation, back to the past, back to the investigation, then to another interview. There is absolutely no way to follow the story and how these people related to one another. And then we find ourselves in a classroom talking to high school students. What the hell is going on here?

This all comes across as very silly which degrades from the overall point of the show. But then it utterly shifts gears and we’re on something called "The Zombie Road" look for shadow people that supposedly exist in the woods. The brothers are talking about children who died in the area as though something sinister is going on. They keep talking about this high body count, but have no real evidence in regards to any of this. They even bring in the local police, who say the place is dangerous, but that’s because it has rising flood water, broken down bridges, bad roads and you can get lost.

Children of the Grave was very disappointing and even frustrating. This whole documentary, and I use that term loosely, comes across as mockery of these poor souls. It’s as though these filmmakers started off making a historical drama and then it would sell better if they turned it into a horror file. It was indeed a waste of an hour and a half.

Other Articles of Interest:

• The Possessed – The Watseka Wonder
• Ghost Adventures Documentary
• Ghost Adventures – Pennhurst State School and Hospital
• Ghost Lab – Episode 4 – Chicago/Texas
• The Others – Revisited
• The Last Exorcism – Quick Review
• Grave Encounters 2
• Ghost Adventures – Washoe Club and Chollar Mine
• Paranormal State – Do Bad Things – S05E10
• Ghost Adventures – Portland Oregon – Shanghai Tunnels – S06E01