Tom Shankland directed WAZ (Filmstalker review), or W Delta Z, which I thought was really quite promising, and now the trailer for his next film The Children has arrived online and I'm struck by two things.

The calibre of the actors seems rather different in comparison with WAZ, and the trailer really has me unsure. On one side it delivers some creepy moments, but it looks to be courting a thin line between scary and parody.

Tom Shankland's WAZ was really rather good and carried the names of Stellan Skarsgård, Melissa George and Selma Blair. Now, his latest film seems to front British television soap stars with Jeremy Sheffield from Holby City and Hannah Tointon from Hollyoaks.

However when you look through the acting listing you see that there's a few actors who carry some stronger career histories with them, with some pretty good films under their belts. I can't help but think that they're playing on these two actors to try and grab a target audience from the soaps.

That aside, the tension and creepiness of the Omen-type kids is strong, I just don't know if the trailer manages to convey the story particularly well.

Have a look at the trailer over at Bloody Disgusting [Flash] to see for yourself.