This force turns the children into violent, murdeous psychopaths who have an unnatural cunning and skill for torture - they also retreat into the forest and begin to kill off their own parents in gruesome ways, at the climax of the film it is revealed there are hundreds of Children in the forest, suggesting the area has been corrupting youths for generations. (They also appear to take on ghostly traits once possessed, having frostbitten features and unnatural eyes that stare out - deadened and devoid of the usual spark of life.)