It takes immense talent to pull off (basically) a “one-man show” let alone a 70-minute film based on supernatural forces in the deliverance of mute children with stoic faces, black eyes and an air of creepiness in an isolated forest camp. But welcome to Camp St. Beatrice!  

Claire Russell (Hungarian actress, Kata Kuna) is an inquisitive psychology student who lands a dream job – autumn camp counselor at St. Beatrice which specializes in caring for special needs children, orphans, etc. With an inclination of helping and learning some additional tools she can apply to her case studies, Claire is excited to begin this new journey. However, the campgrounds prove to be anything new. Upon her arrival, the compound is completely desolate and abandoned. Curiously, her first overwhelming sensation is the familiarity. Has she been here before?  

While the young woman explores the grounds, she discovers several toys dispersed in the leaves, dozens of drawings pinned to walls and more scattered throughout the bunks which seem to lead her from one room to the next like a crumb trail. Claire follows these clues with a notion that children must be nearby given all this material laying around and continues to survey the place. She opens each door with heart-stomping fear and trepidation as her dread grows – Claire is all alone, scared and extremely confused.  

It's impossible not to resonate with her fright, especially after discovering some sketch books reminiscent of “Evil Dead” vibes. Each page escalates Claire’s terror, and she reaches out to the camp director, Donahue (along with others whose phone numbers were found on old applications.) Putting the pieces together, it’s beginning to unfold that Claire Russell has entered an unsafe dimension where children who used to play freely have since disappeared and have now returned in darkness holding uncertain secrets. Parents are still reporting and searching for their beloved kids for decades now and that becomes most alarming…where exactly IS Claire?  

Through her panic attacks, hesitation and shock, she heeds the warnings being delivered through the books, the 20+ year old Nokia phone which is miraculously charged and an old thumb drive left for her by Donahue (another incredulous performance by Bill Oberst, Jr). His startling blue eyes on screen are marked by devastation in contrast to these black-eyed children whom he holds himself in contempt for the complacency with (what he deems) ‘the untouchables’. Once again, the scene stealer shedding his insight over this unbelievable perplexity.

The Black-Eyed Children is visceral look into an exploratory area of phenomena that has yet to become clearly understood. Their ideology of children’s experimentation to reveal a new gateway into the lights of the sky becomes convoluted within the warnings to avoid making eye contact, or allowing them in. The biggest question asked and still remains at the end of this eerie atmospheric film: Who holds the answers to these mysteries? I sure would love to know myself.