Les tueurs de l'éclipse

Three ten-year-old children born at the same time during a solar eclipse begin to slyly murder anybody that offends them.

While killer kid movies weren't exactly new at the time of this twisted 80's slasher the theme of children as murderers works nicely for this film. Bloody Birthday does deliver some good chills and suspense, while managing to be a competent killer thriller with some strange qualities. It straddles a fine line between cheesy and creepy, but it does remain entertaining throughout with an interesting plot. There's some strong murder scenes, as well as a good bit of nudity to establish this as a solid slasher guilty pleasure.

The cast does a fairly good job. Young stars Elizabeth Hoy and K.C. Martel deliver some menacing performances, while rising star Julie Brown does a striptease before a memorable murder scene. Veteran star Susan Strasberg does well as the teacher and Jose Ferrer has a cameo appearance.

All around this off-beat slasher entry isn't bad, though it's admittedly not flawless, but it is well worth watching for genre fans.

*** out of ****

I can't believe I rarely ever see this title mentioned by all you eighties horror freaks and I definitely won't be joining all my fellow reviewers here in saying that 'Bloody Birthday' is awful viewing. On the contrary, I enjoyed it very much and I was pleasantly surprised by the ingeniousness and surprise twists it offers. Don't just refer to this film as being 'another 80's slasher' because the victims here are rather unlikely and so are the killers. We're introduced to three cherubic-looking youngsters who were all born during a solar eclipse. At the moment they were delivered, planet Saturn was blocked by both the sun and the moon and, due to this, the kids are emotionless and seemly without conscience. This really starts to show around their tenth birthday as they go on a merciless killing spree.

Granted, this stuff is incredibility far-fetched and even slightly offensive but, seriously, who cares? Unlike many other horror films from this period, it at least attempts to bring something original and imaginative. For once, the kids' acting is good and the entire film has a creepy atmosphere and grizzly music. The murders sequences are grim and tense, and it's always eerie to see them getting committed by angel-faced kids. I don't know who hired the 3 kids but they did a good job. Especially the girl and the kid with glasses are highly memorable. The bleak images of the heartless trio remind you of classic highlights, such as 'Village of the Damned', 'The Bad Seed' and 'Children of the Damned'. This film is nowhere near as memorable as these milestones but great fun and not one horror lover will regret watching this.

Bloody Birthday was written and directed by Ed Hunt. Not particularly the greatest genius in cinema, but a pleasantly deranged fella who also brought us immensely entertaining cheesefests like 'The Brain' and 'Starship Invasions'. If all this isn't enough to convince you yet, Bloody Birthday has a lot of nudity. And not just any nudity, but a topless dance-act by MTV-VJ Julie Brown. Oh, and keep your eyes open for a completely redundant cameo by Joe Penny, later the star of TV-series 'Jake and the Fatman'. Check it out!!

In BLOODY BIRTHDAY, three psychopathic 10 year-olds decide to murder just about everyone in sight. Even the town sheriff is on their hit list!

Utterly preposterous, with a mean streak a mile long, there's still much mirth to be found here. This is mostly because of Timmy (K.C. Martel), the one kid they simply cannot seem to kill, no matter how hard they try! He's indestructible! This infuriates these terror tots to no end!

This could very well be the perfect 1980's movie! Especially, since none of the adult females are able to keep their clothes on for very long at all...

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..

Three children born during an eclipse are born without empathy or normal human emotions and turn into sadistic killers after they've grown up a little bit and two other neighborhood kids think there's something horribly wrong and end up putting themselves in harm's way.

What a cruel, sadistic, and really nasty slasher Bloody Birthday is. And I mean that in the best possible way. I'm sure sure it's one of the best slashers from this time period, but it's far from the worst and there are a lot of interesting ideas at play here. Plus, it's awesome to see kids not only be the killers, but to be put in jeopardy themselves. It's a brave move that some might find offensive, but it worked for me.