Saturday, September 8, 2012

Bloody Birthday (1981)


Introduction:
Creepy kids are a staple of the horror genre. There is just something about a supposedly innocent child seeing disturbing ghosts, or committing disturbing acts that makes us feel, well… disturbed. These days you don’t see too many killer kid flicks, the heyday seemed to be the 1980s and the Children of the Corn franchise. But this little film may take the cake. Get it! Cake! Birthday!

Yeah, I’ll shut up now.

Summary:
It’s a happy time the neighborhood when three kids, Debbie (Elizabeth Hoy), Curtis (Billy Jayne) and Steven (Andy) are all going to celebrate their 10th birthday with a huge party! But a couple things to keep in mind, all three children were born on the same day during an eclipse, and someone is going around the town killing folks. It doesn’t take long for Timmy (K.C. Martel) and his big sister Joyce (Lori Lethin) to figure out that the evil trio is out for murder. Kids will be locked into abandoned refrigerators, cakes will be poisoned, nine year olds will tote guns and Julie Brown will take her top off. All to survive the Bloody Birthday.

Good Points:

  • Does not shy away from the sex or the gore
  • Has some really creative kills
  • Moves at a good pace
Bad Points:

  • Not for those who are disturbed by evil children – these kids are NUTS!
  • Some of kills are funny in execution and denial of the laws of physics
  • Jose Ferrer gets top billing for about 3 minutes of screen time
Overall:
This movie was a good blast of bloody fun. The child actors were solid at playing soulless murderers. The movie never flagged or got bogged down, the kids were too darn relentless to let that happen. I was surprised by the amount of teenage skin on display, but hell the target audience wants to see boobs, so boobs the movie gives them. Looking for a retro horror flick for the weekend, this one fits the bill, just don’t eat the cake.

Scores (out of 5)
Visuals: 3
Sound: 3
Acting: 3
Script: 4
Music: 3
Direction: 3
Entertainment: 3
Total:  3

Curious about a full review, sent me an email and I’ll make additional thoughts to this review.

2 comments:

  1. I enjoyed this film of killer kids, too. It doesn't try to be artsy or deep, and that's just fine. In its own simple way it works. Eclipses, who knew?

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  2. Yeah, I appreciated that it went pretty straight with the concept too. Instead of trying to make it campy or silly, it just went for scary killer kids.

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