Os Meninos

This remarkable and unusual horror film contains many powerful sequences, but one in particular stands out in my memory: The young husband, who's just beginning to realize that something about this island is very wrong, is attracted to a doorway by the sound of children's delighted laughter. He peeks through a crack in the door and observes a number of happy youngsters, all looking upward and swinging sticks, pinata-fashion, at something suspended from the ceiling. Then his gaze drifts upward, and we in the audience share his profound shock as he sees what the kids are swinging at.

This film hasn't received nearly the public or critical attention it deserves in the U.S. and isn't an easy film to find, except from off-the-beaten-path video companies. It is, however, well worth the patience of any true horror fan. Look for it!

I rather liked Who Can Kill a Child. It relies a great deal on mood, suspense and strong, strangely frightening images. It is not a typical horror film, having a Picnic at Hanging Rock-vibe to its eery, daylight desertion. For especially the images are what makes the film with the excellent photography of surreal horror. That being said the mood is really what drives the film as little quality in the field of writing or acting shines through for the most part. Especially the writing suffers. The dialogue just doesn't flow naturally possibly because the scriptwriters were Spanish. Especially the wife character is given some truly cringe worthy lines besides not having to do much so as to advance the story. The husband, the protagonist for by far the most part, often acts eerily illogically. This occasionally results in unintentionally humorous moments because of both the writers' and actors' shortcomings. However this is mostly during the first half were the couple's banter is in focus. The other, being much more action oriented works much better and the couple is much more appealing leading to some truly distressing scenes. Perhaps this occurs because there is a better translation of themes (as fear is a universal feeling, whereas it is difficult to characterize the ordinary, but specific). As such it is a film the qualities of which surpass the anachronisms and general writing and acting problems. It is a very imperfect great film.

It is hard not to be suspicious about where Stephen King might have got his "inspiration" for "Children of the Corn" when you witness the striking plot similarities between his novel/movie and the little-known but notable spanish movie "Quien puede matar a un nino?", which was also based on a novel. The subject of children who become a menace has been treated several times in horror cinema(e.g. Village Of The Damned, The Exorcist) because the idea of seemingly-innocent beings hiding dark and murderous forces within them is especially mind-bending and terrifying. Director Ibanez-Serrador (who later became more famous in Spain for directing TV game shows (!)) tries to make the most of this concept, and, although the final result suffers a bit from poor acting and lack of budget, he is altogether quite successful; He intelligently uses a sunny and placid holiday setup which gives us no clue about the horrors we're about to see, and builds up suspense so the film becomes more and more scary as it advances, reaching really sick heights of dementia towards the end. This is definitely a movie to discover for all Horror-cinema-lovers.

The amazing story deals with a young couple (Lewis Fiander, Prunella Ransome) on Holiday at Mediterranean Spanish coast . They decide go to island of Almanzora . At the beginning the place is abandoned but then some kids spontaneously appear . Later on , there happens several astonishing murders with bloody and gruesome executions . Various suspect children are implicated at creepy killings . Meantime , the couple is besieged and escaping of the wayward children who are originating a frightening massacre .

This is an unrelenting shock-feast laced with touches of denounce especially in its prologue . Chicho Ibañez Serrador's first great success is compelling directed with startling visual content , skill use of images-shock and some zooms . Several sequences are homages to Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963), for example, the image of all the children in the island's village square ready to attack Tom and Evelyn, and the final escape from the island . However , most of the movie was filmed far from the sea as Ciruelos (Toledo) . This frightening movie is plenty of thrills , chills , high body-count and glimmer color in lurid image with phenomenal results . This is a classic horror movie where intrigue , tension , suspense appear threatening and lurking in every room , corridors , interior and exterior from the deserted island . This film along with ¨La Residencia¨ and ¨Sleeping corpses lie¨ result to be the tree essential movies of the Spanish terror cinema . This genuinely mysterious story is well photographed by Jose Luis Alcaine on location of Sitges , Menorca and Ciruelos , Toledo . Creepie and eerie musical score by Waldo De Los Rios .

The film was released simultaneously as "Would You Kill a Child?" and "Death is Child's Play" in the UK. Similarly, American International Pictures released the film as "Trapped!" and "Island of the Damned" simultaneously in the USA . The motion picture was well directed by Chicho Ibañez Serrador and he originally wanted Anthony Hopkins to play Tom . Chicho directed another classic as ¨La Residencia¨ also titled ¨The Boarding School¨ and for TV , ¨Historias para no Dormir¨, being his last film an episode titled ¨Blame¨(2006). Rating : Good, this is one more imaginative terror pictures in which the camera stalks in sinister style and still packs a punch for those who like to be terrorize . It manages to be both eerie and skillfully made , furthermore holds deservedly its cult status . At the time considered the plus ultra of disturbing movie is less disagreeable by nowadays's standards, yet its fundamental power to thrill remains undiminished .

In one of the featurettes on the Dark Sky DVD, director Serrador claims that he should have put the footage about atrocities done to children -- more than seven hard-to-watch opening minutes about concentration camps, children in Vietnam, Korea, Biafra, starved, burned, tortured -- at the end of the movie. Of course he's wrong: It would have spoiled the whole movie, especially after the very last sentence that spins the film in a direction known from a lot of cheap zombie flicks: The script robs itself of its mystery, though it's a minor letdown in an otherwise perfectly crafted, well-shot (by Jose Luis Alecaine, who also worked with Saura, Luna, Faenza, Almodovar, you name it) and relentlessly gripping story that never lets go, until the ultimately bleak and depressing ending -- the only possible conclusion to this unjustly forgotten gem of Spanish 70s genre cinema. If you hate children, this is the film for you; and if you hate adults, too.