This movie is about two, evil, prodigious children with albinism, though not played by actors with albinism. The wife/mother has a limb difference and uses a prosthetic leg. There is a horror scene where her prosthetic was removed, and she has to run through the house: what could make the situation scarier than being disabled? Again, the actor is able bodied. At the time of writing, the cover photo on Netflix is of the two children holding the prosthetic, staring into the camera. This is intentionally used to portray how terrifying the movie is because in the movie disabled people are either terrifying to be or terrifying to be around.
Now for some details. The convent they get the children from doesn’t even equate disabled children with the children of unwed mothers—“bastards, sins.” It goes so far as to explicitly say that able bodied children cost more money. Reverend Mother: “Here we provide shelter and education to abandoned children. Children from unwed mothers, prostitutes, children with physical disabilities, with mental impairments.” Adolfo: “We were looking to adopt preferably two babies, but—” Reverend Mother (in front of disabled wife and disabled children in courtyard): “Without impairments, of course. In that case, I’d ask for your donation to the convent to be quite generous.” They explicitly state that disabled people are worth less.
When Lola is walking away from first meeting Tin and Tina, they say, “Don’t go, stay here with us. We can play lots of other things, you know.” They equate their value with their abilities and believe they can only be loved if they are highly skilled. Adolfo immediately says to Lola, angry and rolling his eyes, “Lola, no, no, no, pleas listen. I know what you’re thinking, and they’re just too old. And a bit strange.” Lola replies, “These children need to be loved, Adolfo.” With a slight twinge of disgust, he responds, “Are you sure about them?” Now, I wouldn’t personally ascribe the word “strange” to young children who are professional organ players, so I’m going to take a guess and say he was referring to them being disabled. I will be applying the same logic to him being disgusted by them.
Throughout the movie, the children are called peculiar, unique, special, strange (twice), evil, and the children of Dracula. The entire plot of these children being evil is hinged on them having albinism and thus “looking like vampires.” According to this movie, disabled people should scare you.
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