Creepy children are a perennial favourite for horror cinema, whether they’re haunted by ghosts, possessed by demons, replaced by aliens, or just simply plain homicidal. Of course they are popular because they are so effective: horror excels when it ruptures something we assume to be safe and comfortable, and what should be safer to be around than children?

There is a problem with basing a horror film around scary kids, however, and that is that very popularity of that trope. There’s Something Wrong with the Children, directed by Roxanne Benjamin, is the latest entry in this specific genre. It joins an incredibly crowded array of films including The Exorcist, The Omen, The Sixth Sense, Village of the Damned, and many others. Every horror fan is going to have a favourite – mine is Narciso Ibáñez Serrador’s Who Can Kill a Child? (1976). Despite some decent performances and interesting ideas, I cannot imagine any enthusiast picking this new effort. It is entertaining stuff, and is certainly no waste of your time, but it is ultimately disposable. It is produced by Blumhouse Productions, pretty much the first name in commercial American horror movies these days, but it bypassed cinemas on its way to digital. I feel there is an implicit admission in that.

Two couples take a vacation together in a pair of cabins by the forest. Ellie (Amanda Crew) and Thomas (Carlos Santos) come with their two children, Lucy (Briella Guiza) and Spencer (David Mattle). Margaret (Alisha Wainwright) and Ben (Zach Gilford) don’t have children of their own, but enjoy acting as unofficial “aunt and uncle” to Lucy and Spencer.

While exploring the woods the holidaymakers discover a strange fort, inside of which they find a deep water-filled pit. The children are immediately drawn to it – dangerously so – and even after returning to the cabins it is not long before they return to the pit without their parents.

There’s Something Wrong with the Children begins quite weakly, but improves as it goes. The performances are solid enough, and the characters are nicely distinct. That the children return from the pit somehow changed is no surprise to anyone, nor is the gradual upping of the paranoia as Ben comes to recognise something has gone terribly awry.

By the film’s third act, it begins to take a few unexpected directions and creative risks. It is a shame Benjamin did not lean further into these more inventive elements, as it would have certainly made for a more distinctive and unusual movie. As it stands it is a an entertaining diversion, but not too much more than that. Roxanne Benjamin certainly has a strong pedigree in horror – she produced V/H/S and its sequel, and has directed for Creepshow, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and One of Us is Lying – and is certainly a director worth following in future.