Though not a major subgenre, stories that involve evil kids act as an occasional source of horror content. In this vein comes 2018’s Bad Apples.

New arrivals Ella (Brea Grant) and Robert Block (Graham Skipper) settle in to their quiet cul-de-sac neighborhood. Matters take an unusual turn on Halloween night, however.

Two teen sisters (Alycia Lourim and Heather Vaughn) use this event as a time to enact violent plans. After they brutally murder a few others, they land on the doorstep of Ella and Robert’s house as they execute more terror.

Horror tales in which apparently underpowered characters create violent havoc don’t seem unusual. For instance, the Child’s Play movies involve a diminutive doll, so even though Chucky seems as though he should be easy to stop, he commits all sorts of bloody violence.

As such, it may feel like a stretch that two teen girls could so easily kill a bunch of adults – and it probably is. But we accept all sorts of less than believable situations in horror films, so I can go with this improbable flow.

Or I could if I found a better movie. Unfortunately, Apples exists as little more than a quirky theme without any real scares.

Though it seems like it mainly derives from the “evil kid” genre, Apples shares more with another domain: home invasion flicks. Plenty of movies involve characters who need to protect themselves from a malevolent threat, and we get that concept here.

Of course, the undersized and underaged nature of the antagonists offers a spin. Still, beyond the youth of the killers, Apples fits pretty snugly into the series of flicks that force residents to defend themselves in their abodes.

We also can’t ignore the proverbial jack-o’-lantern in the room: 1978’s classic Halloween. Murderous and mysterious assailants in masks who slay on October 31? No one can make that movie and not beg for comparisons to John Carpenter’s hit and its many sequels.

All of this leads to a movie that mixes and matches genres in a broad manner. Perhaps another filmmaker could jumble these elements into something fresh, but writer/director Robert Coyne isn’t that person.

Like too many horror flicks, Apples comes across like a short stretched to feature length. Even at a mere 85 minutes, it feels padded.

This means too many scenes that deserved to land on the cutting room floor. For instance, we spend seemingly endless minutes with inane monotony that involves Ella and Robert in their new home.

I suppose Coyne figured this footage would add depth to the roles, but that doesn’t occur. We get nothing that proves particularly useful to understand the characters or the circumstances, so all this material simply slows the narrative and acts to eat minutes.

Once the horror plot engages, matters don’t improve. We remain stuck with tedium, as the tale fails to progress in a lively manner.

Instead, we end up stuck in neutral as we await the inevitable violent shenanigans. Nothing ever feels tense or involving.

It doesn’t help that Apples fails to set up Ella as an even vaguely sympathetic role. For a movie like this to work, we need to care about her fate, but instead, we kind of hope the kids will slaughter this grumpy, sour character.

Eventually Apples gives us backstory elements that might explain Ella’s dour personality. However, this feels gratuitous and still not enough to make us sympathize with her.

Grant offers a sexy presence but she fails to make Ella likable. None of the other actors do much with their parts as well.

Not that I can fault them, as they find themselves stuck in an inert, tedious attempt at horror. Perhaps skilled filmmakers could do something with this mess, but the movie we find here just turns into a dull drag.

Bad Apples appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This was a perfectly watchable but less than excellent image.

The main issue stemmed from some murkiness in low-light interiors, of which we found plenty. These lacked great delineation and could feel a bit tentative.

Still, overall definition was generally positive, and I saw no issues with jagged edges or moiré effects. Edge haloes failed to appear and I saw no source defects.

Colors leaned heavily toward an amber tone, with bold purples from one house in the leads’ neighborhood. The hues looked well-rendered within their stylistic choices.

Blacks felt a bit inky, and as noted, low-light elements tended to come across as somewhat dense. All of this seemed good enough for a “B-“.

I felt less impressed by the movie’s lackluster Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. As always, I docked the audio some points due to the absence of a lossless track, which felt out of date.

Even without that concern, this mix seemed erratic. The soundscape failed to do much.

Much of the movie felt essentially monaural. Music spread across the front in a more than reasonable manner, but effects failed to blossom in a memorable way.

Surround usage seemed minor at best. The rear channels offered mild reinforcement of the forward domain but never made themselves known to any real degree.

Audio quality also varied, especially due to issues related to speech. Dialogue volume failed to show consistency, so while most lines came across at the appropriate levels, some seemed so low that I could barely hear them.

When audible, dialogue felt fairly natural, if a bit awkward due to less than stellar recording techniques. Some shouted lines also displayed mild distortion.

Music appeared largely vivid and full. Effects lacked a lot of dimensionality, but they seemed acceptably accurate and concise. Between the bland soundscape and the iffy dialogue reproduction, this turned into a mediocre track.

The disc opens with ads for The Lullaby, Condemned and The Terrible Two. No trailer for Apples or any other extras appears here.

A mix of genres, Bad Apples fails to coalesce into anything memorable. The movie wears too many influences on its sleeve and lacks both coherence and impact. The Blu-ray delivers adequate but bland visuals along with lackluster audio and no bonus materials. Expect a tedious 85 minutes.