Children strike back at adults in this chilling horror film from director Narcisco Ibanez Serrador. While vacationing on the remote island of Almanzora, Tom (Lewis Fiander) and his pregnant wife Evelyn (Prunella Ransome) notice only giggling children. They wonder where all the adults are, until Tom spies a little girl beating an old man to death with his own walking stick. The man is then hung up in the town square and used as a piñata by the scythe-wielding children. Tom soon discovers that the demonic youths have killed every adult on the island, because none would ever fight back if it meant killing a child. Even Evelyn's unborn baby is affected, and Tom becomes the target of gunfire as the children go after him. Aside from a silly ending, Serrador's film is remarkably effective, slowly introducing the situation and playing on both xenophobia and cultural taboos while building an atmosphere of mounting dread. Unlike most Spanish shockers, this is not an unintentionally funny melodrama or a sexually-charged exploitation item. It is a serious-minded horror film with a message, based on Juan Jose Plans' novel The Game, and is both worthwhile and frightening. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
Review by All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
disliked it.
This impressive Spanish production is one of the great unsung horror films of the 1970's. Who Can Kill A Child? takes the kind of "killer kids" premise that could be either silly or distasteful in the wrong hands and gives it a thoughtful, chilling treatment. Writer/director Narcisco Ibanez Serrador wisely takes a slow-burn approach to the material, allowing the viewer to get acquainted with its two heroes and the setting before moving into horrific territory. Thus, when the horrific aspects really kick in during the film's final third, they have a shocking intensity that lingers in the viewer's mind long after the film is over. Who Can Kill A Child? also benefits from two strong lead performances by Lewis Fiander and Prunella Ransome: both give naturalistic, unaffected performances that make their characters instantly convincing and sympathetic as they try to cope with the bizarre situation around them. It also helps that the story is told with a great deal of style. Key contributors to that style are cinematographer
Jose Luis Alcaine, who manages to makes the daytime-set action look eerie and otherworldly and composer Waldo De Los Rio, whose keyboard-driven musical score effectively offsets the horror of the story's events with a lush, melodic sound that provides an effective, often melancholy counterpoint. All in all, Who Can Kill A Child? is a tremendously effective piece of work that deserves to be discovered by a wider audience. ~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide