Who Can Kill A Child? is a woefully, and criminally overlooked horror movie made in 1976 and filmed in various locations around the beautiful, Southern coast of Spain. It’s a terrific horror film that was ahead of it’s time and over the years fans were treated to a variety of shitty VHS and DVD releases – the US version being hacked all to hell. But with the recent Dark Sky DVD release of the film, I decided it was time to point horror fans to an obscure film in the killer kid genre that is worth checking out. Tom (Lewis Fiander) and EvelynEvelyn reviews (Prunella Ransome) are an English couple vacationing in Spain. Evelyn is 6-months pregnant with their third child and Tom, a professor of Biology, has brought her to coastal town of Benivas to rest and rent a boat to get to their true destination; The island of Almanzora. A four hour trip by boat, the island is not normally flooded with tourists like the noisy Benivas and is a paradise whose beaches are not stuffed with the bloated bodies of tourists from around the world. It is off the beaten path just enough that the majority of tourists do not visit it, making it a perfect setting for anyone just wanting to have a nice, secluded getaway.

But once the couple arrive, they find that the island town is practically deserted. The only people who seem to be active in the town are children. Nothing seems amiss, as far as the children are concerned, as the couple observe them laughing and playing – although a bit on guard with the couple – choosing to keep their distance and engaging only with mischievous smiles. Thinking that the town’s residence may be participating in a fiesta on the other side of the island, they make their way to the hotel hoping to find out where everyone is at. When this establishment is found abandoned, as well as the bar and the grocery store, the couple begins thinking something sinister is at work. This suspicion is confirmed when they witness an extremely heinous and violent act perpetrated by one of the town’s children. Now Tom and Evelyn must find a way off the island and away from these children – children who have some very interesting games they would like to play with them.

Who Can Kill A Child? is one of those horror films that you just do not hear talked about much in terms of the classics, and that continues to be a mystery to me. Who Can Kill A Child? delivers a powerful punch that rivals all films of the “killer children” genre. The mood of the film is set from the beginning with the opening credits displaying real news footage of atrocities committed against children during wars, while the sounds of children laughing plays in the background. Narciso Ibáñez Serrador follows the same template used in films such as The BirdsThe Birds reviews and The Wickerman – films that are of the “daylight horror” variety and start off immediately with a feeling of dread, keeping the viewer hooked as the dread slow burns into full-fledged horror.

These children are not the two-sided personalities as demonstrated in The Bad SeedThe Bad Seed reviews, or the unlikeable alien-ish force seen in Village of the Damned or even scary BibleBible reviews thumping maniacs screaming about damnation while standing among rows of corn. These look just like everyday children who you would expect to see playing amongst the streets of a small village. It’s just that the games they like to play have changed drastically and with negative consequences to any adult nearby. The way they are portrayed, including some the amateurish acting that peeks through, make the children of this island very formidable and unsettling. Especially when we witness what they are capable of by their actions, as well as the evidence left from their past actions. Eventually Tom and Evelyn realize they are in a life-or-death situation and will have to fight back to survive and decide if, as the title asks, they are able to kill children.

That question is answered of course, and I am not going to give any of the specifics away, but I will say that the film does not pull any punches. Many memorable scenes in this movie that even now, by today’s standards, are still disturbing 30 years later. Not just by what you are seeing, but in the way some of these scenes are delivered. A macabre game the children play with a piñata, the initial violent act witnessed by the couple, Evelyn’s pregnancy (wow), and even the finale. This film simply delivers on all fronts and switches between the viewer being shown some events, and only hearing others, without losing any of the intended effect while doing so. It’s is an amazing feat that other filmmakers usually fumble, especially when dealing with low-budget affairs.

José Luis Alcaine’s cinematography should also be noted, and his ability to mesh all of the different shooting locations to create an illusion of the film being at one location should be applauded. The look of the town, baking under the Mediterranean sun that hangs high in the bright, blue sky is an excellent contradiction to the horrors going on inside it. The sun adds another, natural effect seen in the movie in that the actors look hot. As in, temperature. For me, this added even more realism to the film as our actors sweat their asses off during the length of the movie. Who Can Kill A Child? environments look uncomfortably hot throughout and helped me feel for the characters and their plight to a much larger degree (no pun intended), as they experienced horrors not in a spooky forest or an abandoned house in the middle of the night, but rather on an island paradise under a sweltering sun.

I really have only one complaint and it really doesn’t hurt the film too much. The actions of Tom are questionable and often downright dangerous, even though his motives are quite clear. He wants to protect his wife and avoid hurting the pregnancy. But his delay in telling her exactly what is happening, plus his initial actions made when they first arrive to Almanzora seem to be from some form of denial. These bonehead moves will make you want slap him upside the head as keeping Evelyn in the dark keeps her from knowing the danger she is in. But even with that stumbling block, Who Can Kill A Child? is hands down, the best horror film involving psychopathic children.

I highly recommend everyone check out this film if you are a fan of killer kids, even moreso if you like the simmer-to-a-boil type horror. It FINALLY got a decent DVD release in all of it’s uncut glory thanks to Dark Sky. The extras included on it are also worth checking out and include a 15 minute featurette with José Luis Alcaine titled Who Could Shoot a Child? as well as a 9-minute interview with director Narciso Ibáñez Serrador in which he talks about poor casting choices and how different the final product was from the screenplay. There are a LOT of shitty horror movies to watch out there, how about checking out this classic instead and help it get the recognition it deserves. People suffering from pediaphobia? StayStay reviews away from this one.

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Who Can Kill A Child? - 1976 - More Information

Director: Narciso Ibáñez Serrador
Writer: Juan José Plans
Actors: Prunella Ransome, Miguel Narros
Genre: Horror - Terror
MPAA: R
Company: Dark Sky

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