''Innocence'' is a 2013 American horror

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by Hilary Brougher, who co-wrote the film with

Tristine Skyler Tristine Skyler (born July 27, 1971) is an American writer, producer and actress. Born and raised in New York City, Skyler graduated cum laude from Princeton University. Early life and education Skyler was born and raised in New York City, where ...

. The movie is based on the 2000 novel of the same name by

Jane Mendelsohn Jane Simone Mendelsohn (born 1965) is an American writer. Her novels are known for their mythic themes, poetic imagery, and allegorical content, as well as themes of female and personal empowerment. Mendelsohn's novel ''I Was Amelia Earhart'' was a ...

. It had its world premiere on October 26, 2013 at the

Austin Film Festival Austin Film Festival (AFF), founded in 1994, is an organization in Austin, Texas, that focuses on writers’ creative contributions to film. Initially, AFF was called the Austin Heart of Film Screenwriters Conference and functioned to launch the ...

and received a limited theatrical release in the United States on September 5, 2014. The movie stars Sophie Curtis,

Kelly Reilly Jessica Kelly Siobhán Reilly (born 18 July 1977) is an English actress. She first appeared on screen in 1995 on the series '' The Biz''. Her other television work includes starring roles in the British crime drama '' Above Suspicion'' (2009– ...

, Graham Phillips,

Linus Roache Linus William Roache (born 1 February 1964) is a British actor. He is known for playing Executive ADA Michael Cutter in the NBC dramas ''Law & Order'' (2008–2010) and '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'' (2011–2012). More recently, Roach ...

Sarah Sutherland Sarah Jude Sutherland is a Canadian-American actress, best known for her role as Catherine Meyer in ''Veep''. Early life Sutherland was born in Los Angeles, California, to Kiefer Sutherland and his first wife, Camelia Kath. She is the granddau ...

and

Stephanie March Stephanie Caroline March Benton (born July 23, 1974) is an American actress. She is known for starring as Alexandra Cabot in the crime drama franchise ''Law & Order'', which she played in the NBC series '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'' (2 ...

Plot

Beckett (Sophie Curtis) is a young teenager mourning the loss of her mother. She's moved to the

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

with her father Miles (

) and is set to begin school at Hamilton, an exclusive prep school. Beckett is so engrossed in her grief that she fails to notice that her school is a little stranger than most schools, as its students are prone to suicides and is full of extraordinarily beautiful female teachers. Things grow worse when the school nurse Pamela (

) decides to move in with Beckett and Miles, especially since Pamela keeps instructing Beckett to remain a virgin. What Beckett doesn't know is that Pamela and the other school staff are all incarnations of

Lamia LaMia Corporation S.R.L., operating as LaMia (short for ''Línea Aérea Mérida Internacional de Aviación''), was a Bolivian charter airline headquartered in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, as an EcoJet subsidiary. It had its origins from the failed ...

, a former queen of

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

, and must kill and drink the blood of virgins to retain their immortal existence.

Cast

* Sophie Curtis as Beckett Warner *

as Pamela Hamilton * Graham Phillips as Tobey Crawford *

as Miles Warner *

as Jen Dunham *

as Natalie Crawford *

Perrey Reeves Perrey Reeves (born ) is an American film and television actress. She is best known for her recurring role as Melissa Gold on the television series ''Entourage'' from 2004 to 2011 and Frank the Tank's wife in the 2003 comedy '' Old School''. E ...

as Ava Dunham

Reception

Critical reception for ''Innocence'' has been predominantly negative. It holds an approval rating of 15% at

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on 20 reviews, with an average rating of 3.3/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has weighted average rating of 26 out of 100, based on 13 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". ''The New York Times'' criticized the film's acting and soundtrack, while the ''Las Vegas Weekly'' criticized it for relying overly much on "worn-out horror cliches" - a criticism shared by the ''Fort Worth Star-Telegram''.

References

External links

* * * {{rotten-tomatoes, innocence_2014 2013 films Films based on American horror novels American vampire films 2013 horror films 2010s horror drama films American horror drama films Killer Films films Films produced by Christine Vachon Films scored by Tomandandy 2013 drama films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films