Les tueurs de l'éclipse

In Meadowvale, California three babies are born simultaneously during a solar eclipse. Years later, the kids (Billy Jacoby, Elizabeth Hoy and Andy Freeman) turn ten and go on a violent killing spree, offing horny teens, schoolteachers, cops and others. It's a pretty sick/tasteless combo of THE BAD SEED, VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED and Friday THE 13TH, and kind of jarring to see these calculating kiddies shooting, stabbing and strangling their victims (making some look like accidents), stalking people with guns, spying on people having sex, pretending to put poison in birthday cake, keeping a scrapbook with obituary clippings and doing all kinds of other horrible things!

Name-value stars Susan Strasberg as a stern teacher and Jose Ferrer as a doctor receive top billing for bit roles; the real star is Lori Lethin (also in THE PREY and RETURN TO HORROR HIGH) as the astrology obsessed teen who catches on. I don't know where they found the child actors at, but they're all very good. You may also want to catch this for comedienne Julie Brown's topless dance scene.

Score: 6 out of 10

Talk about controversial story lines, this is THE GOOD SON taken to the next level! The plot concerns a murderous trio of triplets (two boys and a girl) who suddenly develop homicidal tendencies on their 11th (bloody) birthday and decide to try out their newfound murdering tendencies on their sleepy little town. Everybody thinks they're little angels, so the only people who can bring them down are a college student and her younger brother, who know the psychotic threesome's true nature. But our two heroes have just been added to the hit-list..

It doesn't have the best acting in the world and the movie print seems more than a bit fuzzy, but overall this is an effective little low-budget horror with effective moments of suspense and even a dash of gore. The novelty of having children as the villains helps the plot through its slower spots, and the movie makes good use of the weapons the kids have at their disposal, be they rat-poison smeared onto the icing of a cake or arrows shot into the peephole of a sister's bedroom. Some may find the premise of these youngsters going around slaughtering at will a little hard to swallow, but for anyone who can suspend disbelief for 90 minutes, this is a fun ride. I give it a 5/10. Watch out for the nice twist at the end..

'Bloody Birthday' is one of those movies that surprisingly ages well enough to remain watchable nowadays. Not a masterpiece for sure, but still entertaining and surprisingly enough, it doesn't really have a lot of unintentionally funny scenes. I know it's a shocker if we keep in mind that this is a low budget flick from the early 80s about a group of evil children who kill people. But trust me, the movie manages to remain respectable and watchable for the most part.

The story revolves around three children who are born during a a total eclipse. According to astrology, during eclipses, the sun and the moon block Saturn, which controls emotions. As a consequence, the three children who are born that day, eventually become uncaring and evil. Since they don't experience any feelings of remorse whatsoever, these 10-year-old kids gang up against basically everyone who stands in their way, including their own parents and siblings... and kill them! The body count increases day after day and the police authorities believe that there's a psychopath lurking around the place. In the meantime, Debbie, Curtis and Steven, don't hesitate to keep butchering people.

I was expecting some hilariously bad scenes, but the movie proved me wrong. True, it's not exactly what most people would consider a 'serious' horror movie, but if I have to be fair, I'd say that the story is decently executed. One of the most important reasons why one would normally expect laughable situations (like I did), it's because in these kind of movies in which the main villains are children, the young actors tend to be plain awful and they make the whole thing laughable. Let's face it: kids tend to be horrible actors, which is understandable and we can't blame them for that. But to my surprise, the three young actors who played the merciless killers in this film, looked very disturbing and not at all funny. The rest of the actors are also good and if you're a George Clooney fan, you can see his uncle playing a doctor in this movie. Yeah, I know right?... who cares?. Also, Julie Brown, the great actress, singer, comedienne and gay icon, gives a solid performance as the naughty older sister and in case anyone is interested in nudity: she also strips in one of the scenes and she looks great naked. Too bad she didn't have more time on the screen though! Julie is 'absolutely fabulous':P

So basically, this movie is fine if you're in the mood for some modest horror from the 80s. My only objection regarding 'Bloody Birthday' would be the way to justify the children's motives. This is perhaps one of the lowest points of the film. Let's see: if children who were born during an eclipse end up being heartless killers, then how come these three were the only ones who actually murdered people? I'm sure there were other children who had been born the same day... and during other days of total eclipse too, oh well!. Overall, no big deal, it's just a simple observation, that's all. I've seen worse, trust me. Take 'The Children' (1980) for example, in which the precocious killer get their evilness after being turned into zombies by toxic cloud. No, believe me, 'Bloody Birthday' is far more decent and if you enjoy simple slashers, you're going to enjoy this one very much.

An absolute classic of 80's scare flix. This one isn't like any other as it pits pint-size, wild-eyed, psychotic youngsters with an urge to kill against all the grown-ups in town. Bud from JUST ONE OF THE GUYS (80's gold again) plays one of the killer-kids and he's paired up with one of the little girls Jake Blues tries to purchase in the BLUES BROTHERS. There is a third blond boy, but he keeps disappearing from the movie for whatever reason. The violence is hilarious at times and also surprisingly gruesome in spots. The demonic gang of smiling kids, though somehow possessed by extra-planetary means, bear little resemblance to the droid-ish Children of the Damned, who never thought to use pistols, crossbows and shovels to kill those pesky adults. Julie Brown (not Downtown Julie Brown-the other one) shows her rack, like three times, as she dances around in her bedroom. This movie is a rarity that I cannot believe I missed growing up in the 80's. This would have been my absolute favorite movie as a kid if I had seen it. Where is the sequel the ending begs for? This movie is just incredible. Seek it out at all costs.

This is an interesting and fun little horror movie from the early 80's that probably had a brief run in the drive-ins I would imagine. I won't break down by ridiculous "categories" such as "suspense" or "gore" which I personally find quite hilarious, but in sum, if you like grind-house films of the era, you might enjoy this. It seesaws between very dumb and quite entertaining with a few genuine scares (such as the opening sequence) and a little splash of suspense. It has that cheap, raw 70's feel that try as they might, horror movie makers just can't correctly emulate, and scenes of such utter nonsense that would never slip by editors these days; which is a good thing. Performances are pretty good. For instance, the updated Omen suffered severely by the less than convincing devil-child performance. However, the kids here are totally fine. This is a kooky little movie and I enjoyed every minute of it.