Childish Games / Dictado

Antonio Chavarrias's Childish Games (Spain, 2012) - Playing childish innocence against adult guilt has been a staple of psychological horror ever since The Turn of the Screw, and it’s been a reliable ploy for recent Spanish chillers - notably The Orphanage and, before that, The Devil’s Backbone. Considerably less Gothic than those films, Childish Games (Dictado) could nevertheless very modestly emulate their success in sales terms, if only because it’s a relatively efficient reworking of familiar tropes. But, once it’s set out its initially enigmatic premise, Childish Games doesn’t do much more than run through its moves to increasingly routine effect. 2012BERic. RATING: 5.