The Children

I first saw this movie when I was a kid and it horrified me. A few decades have passed and I finally rewatched it and I was amazed. Here's a fun horror flick with instantly likeable characters and a

very creepy story. As hardened of a horror fan as I am, even I was creeped out by some of the scenes in this flick (the kids smiling reflections in the window). Sure it's low budget, but that's what's

great about it. And credit goes to the filmmakers for making a consistantly entertaining film, throwing logic to the wind and not explaining why the kid's hands must be cut off or why they are now indestructable. It just makes for a lot of great scenes (Chopping up kids!!! AMAZING!). Plus, they created tension very well. Hope they give this a special treatment on DVD one day.

A school bus drives through a radioactive fog (the result of a leak at the local nuclear power plant), turning the young passengers into black-finger-nailed zombies with a deadly, corrosive touch.

Having seen my fair share of 'killer kiddie' horror, I've come to the conclusion that it is extremely hard to make minors scary: it's unusual for children to possess the necessary acting chops to appear genuinely dangerous. The Children (of Ravensback) does little to alter my opinion that murderous movie moppets are rarely effective, but it does have a great premise, one that could work well as a remake, so long as a talented director is calling the shots and the casting goes beyond hiring the producer's children.

To be fair, this film isn't unwatchable, thanks to quite a few gruesome deaths, a willingness to kill off anyone, no matter how young, and a feeling that everyone involved was at least trying their best to create something entertaining (the cast might not be Oscar winners, but they're likeable). When the terrible tykes grab hold of someone, it causes the skin to blister and burn, which leads to some fun make-up effects, and respect is due for inflicting such a painful death on two unlikely victims: pretty farmer's daughter Suzie (Joy Glaccum) and little kid Clarkie (Jessie Abrams). I honestly didn't expect either one to die.

I also admire the fact that there wasn't what I would call a happy ending -- no antidote is found for the children -- the only way to deal with the problem being to hack off their hands, killing them in the process. The dismembered remains of several kids are shown in the aftermath.

Bonus marks too for the bizarre scene in which the town sheriff visits influential citizen Dee Dee Shore (Rita Montone), who nonchalantly sparks up a doobie in front of the cop while her partner Jackson Lane (John P. Codiglia) pumps iron by the pool, and for a subsequent scene in which millionaire Sanford Butler-Jones (Martin Brennan) persuades Deputy Harry Timmons to let him through a roadblock. Neither moment has any real bearing on the plot and one wonders what purpose they serve (although Brennan was apparently a drug dealer who supplied coke to the cast and crew, which might answer that query).

I will, however, deduct those marks for several reasons: Harry Manfredini's score is extremely derivative, borrowing heavily from Psycho, Jaws, Halloween, and even the composer's own music for Friday the 13th; the predictable 'twist' ending is lame; and the scene in which deadly youngster Paul (Jeptha Evans) scratches at the window of poor little Clarkie, waiting to be let in, is ripped off from Salem's Lot. Did they really think we wouldn't notice?

5.5/10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.

A leak at a nuclear plant releases a toxic cloud that poisons all the kids from Ravensback after their school bus drives through it. The kids end up being like zombies with black fingernails and they cause their parents to melt when they touch them. Jeez, talk about your nuclear family! It is up to Sheriff Billy Hart (Gil Rogers) and local dad John Freemont (Martin Shakar) to stop these radioactive little moppets. I saw this as a kid in the early 1980s and it freaked the hell out of me and my sister. It is such a simple premise (NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD KIDS), but the filmmakers pull it off with the creepy kids saying nothing more than "Mommy! Mommy!" or "Daddy! Daddy!" with their arms extended. Also, the method of dispatching them (cutting off their hands) is done really effective and it is rare to see kids the subject of on screen carnage. It is a nice production too, with lots of great rural locations. There are also some really bizarre choices when it comes to the town folk. Harry Manfredini provides a score that sounds exactly like his F13 compositions.

This is one of those movies that is like an idiot step-child--it's totally moronic but still strangely hard to dislike. When so many horror movies are so transparently and unimaginatively exploitative, it's refreshing to see a movie so ludicrous and completely off-the-wall that god only knows WHAT it's trying to exploit. Is it trying to prey on every parent's fear that their lovable moppets will turn into radioactive zombies? Is it trying to make an environmental statement about how nuclear waste will turn children's fingernails black and make them kill every adult they touch? Is it trying to impress the gorehounds with its incredible special effects (i.e. dry ice and black fingernail polish)? Someone ought to put this movie, "The Carrier" (1987), and "The Pit" (1982)all on a single DVD compilation and call it "WHAT THE HELL?!..." or something like that. I'd definitely buy it.

I remember seeing the previews for this movie on TV when I was a kid back in the 80's. Funny thing is it always stuck with me and I had been wanting to see this movie ever since. Well, I recently went to a film festival of bad movies and The Children was one of them. I was very excited to see it. I was not disappointed. This movie is fast paced, and fun. Don't get me wrong, it is a bad movie, but a good, fun movie. What really helped the movie was the score, which was composed by Harry Manfredini who also scored that little old film Friday the 13th. So, the music helped to build some creepiness and suspense. The fact that the movie is about children who become toxic, zombie, killers makes it enjoyable on that level. Just watching the townsfolk trying to stop the children is a hoot. Rarely in films these days do we see children get dispatched on screen. That is something to enjoy. Not the fact that children are being killed but that it is a testament to how times have changed in movie-making.