Child Eater is a short horror film about what happens when the monster the kid is worried about is real.
It's, uh, not good. The short is later turned into a full-length feature film, and maybe that's better, but this short just seemed to miss the mark.
Short horror films can explore unique concepts while really only focussing on that concept and the quality of the cinematography. Themes have to be explored in unique ways due to the lack of screentime.
Child Eater decided to cram a bunch of themes into fifteen minutes and really didn't get creative in how they handled pretty much anything.
We go from boogie man in the closet who eats eyes, which somehow instantly kills the victim, to nightmares to storks that eat eyeballs and children to a missing child to teen pregnancy to jump scares to end the film. It's a lot for fifteen minutes.
On top of that, the short uses quite a bit of shaky cam, which I see as a cheap and abhorrent way to try and create tension. The acting is also a little overdone, and every touch of horror is a jump scare. The characters are also bad-horror-movie levels of dumb, running to the basement to try and get away from the killer instead of running outside and then taking their eyes off of the killer when they try and leave the basement.
There is nothing particularly compelling about Child Eater that makes it stand out amongst the rest of the horror shorts out there, which is a shame. The concept of the antagonist being a monster that needs to eat fresh eyeballs to keep its sight brings up memories of Grimlocks from Charmed and is otherwise fairly unique.
While I wouldn't recommend finding time to fit this film into your schedule if you're in the mood for some bad horror tropes, exaggerated screaming, and unrealistic fake blood, find Child Eater and enjoy your next fifteen minutes.
