Who Can Kill a Child? (1976)

Lack of good storyline.

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

A Major Disappointment

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

"Who Can Kill a Child?" is a mid 1970s classic about a young British couple Tom (Lewis Fiander) and Evelyn (the late Prunella Ransome) who are on vacation. Evelyn is pregnant with their 3rd child and the couple want a vacation before the birth. Tom and Evelyn have a young son and daughter named Richard and Rosie already. Spain seems like an ideal place for them, but then again, other people have gotten the same memo and the island Tom and Evie are vacationing on is lousy with people. Tom and Evie want to get away from the noise and happy chaos of so many people. He suggests they take a boat to Almanzora, an island he went to 12 years ago. The day Tom and Evie take the boat to Almanzora is simply beautiful! When they arrive on the island, they see the white buildings and young boys playing in the water. One boy is a solemn, dark-haired kid with a fishing pole, a basket, and a less-than friendly-attitude towards Tom and Evie. Things become more and more unusual on Almanzora. All the inhabitants seem to be children ages 12 and under. The thing that clinches how strange the island is when Tom and Evie see a young girl not yet in her teens steal a cane from an old man and beat him to death with it! Both of them are shocked by what this young girl has done and she seems to think beating an old man to death is some sort of game. Tom sees the village children use the old man as a piñata later on. The reveal comes about when Tom and Evie realize all the adults have been eliminated from the equation by the children. A father of one of the murderous children says the murders happened the night before. He is soon killed when his daughter leads him to his death. The dark-haired boy and a blond boy are the leaders of the murderous children. All it takes is for them to stare at good children in a sort of hypnosis to get the good children on their side. It's too late to save Evie's unborn baby from this weird kind of hypnosis. A young girl touches Evie's pregnant stomach and the baby kills Evie. Tom can't take it anymore. He shots the children down and the ones who remain chase him to the shore. Tom is going to leave the island when the remaining children attack. A police boat comes by and the cops think Tom is killing innocent children. The chief shots Tom dead and the children show the cops where the villagers are hiding. This is a ruse of course. The boys rob the police boat of ammo and guns and shoot the cops dead."Who Can Kill a Child" is a really good, creepy movie about children who can't take the horrible things adults do anymore (ie., wars, famines, etc). The kids hypnotize each other and this makes all of them do away with their elders. The setting is not a haunted house and the sun is up during most of the movie. The children are all creepy and most of them have benevolent smiles that hide malice. One really can't blame the children for attacking the adults. The beginning of the movie shows wars, famines, and children being eliminated in concentration camps. I can't help but think Stephen King must have seen this movie late at night and was influenced to write "Children of the Corn" because his story follows the concept of this movie. I recommend "Who Can Kill a Child" because it is chilling, creepy, and no one would think a beautiful island would be the home of a horror movie!

I saw WHO CAN KILL A CHILD?, under the title ISLAND OF THE DAMNED, at the drive-in and I'd all but forgotten the opening montage. Rather they'd merely REFERENCED the killings of children around the world than SHOWING it: it makes the movie as mere entertainment much harder to take than it should be. It's for inclusion of this monstrous montage that I can't give the movie a higher rating. It IS suspenseful at times, and there ARE some sudden "GOTCHA!" moments that make it worth seeing, but the opening is VERY hard to take (as are the first 20 minutes or so of the movie proper, which play out like somebody's home movie or travel videos). When the couple, biologist Tom and his pregnant wife Evelyn, arrive on the island, they find it deserted. Upon investigation, Tom begins to discover the bodies of apparent murder victims. Evelyn is visited by a young girl, who places her face against Evelyn's belly. (This becomes significant late in the movie.) When Tom and Evelyn see a young girl take a cane from an old man and proceed to beat him to death with it, Tom tries to reassure his wife that the old man wasn't actually killed. She doesn't buy it, of course, and, before long, there's no doubt that there are killer children on the island (Almazora) and that they're out for ADULT blood. (This somehow ties into the opening montage...) When they meet a survivor of the island massacre that preceded their arrival, they ask him why he didn't intervene to try to save his own wife. His response: "Who can kill a child...?" (My, how the times they done changed...) He refers to the rampage as "some sort of madness." He's later led off to his (offscreen) death by his own daughter. At one point, Tom finds a group of boys undressing the corpse of a woman; they run at the sight of him, giggling as they go. He muses that maybe the mass murders are some new "instinct... or evolutionary development..." When the couple flee to a house near the shore, a pair of killer kids arrive and telepathically hypnotize the kids who live there. (They STARE at the normal kids and we hear strange sound fx suggesting that some kind of mind control is being used...) When the couple is cornered,and it looks like they may get away, Evelyn's unborn baby kills her from the inside- the result of a thought implanted by the girl who earlier put her face against Evelyn's belly. (A special shout out to THE CINEFILES- Edwin Samuelson, Eric Cohen, Jeff Gallaway, and Michael Foltz- whose shows I've just discovered on YouTube: they mentioned this movie under its original title and that's how I was able to track down a copy. Thanks, fellas!)

A couple of British holidaymakers arrive in a small island off the Spanish coast, only to find the place totally empty of adults and the children acting in a sinister way. We soon find out that the children blew a fuse all of a sudden, and murdered all the grown-ups. Obviously, the little bastards are not going to let the visitors get away and spill the beans. Armed with clubs, knives, scythes and guns, they chase the hysterical pair all over the island, and the conclusion is quite predictable. This little film possesses a beautiful photography and an effective score to deliver the chills, but then there are a number of flaws in the script that weight against the story's credibility: who would want to live on an island too far away from the mainland when there is not a miserable telephone line or a radio to keep the islanders in touch with the rest of the world in the case of an emergency? What kind of a man would drag his heavily pregnant wife on a four-hour trip by boat in the blazing sun to stay for days in a place where there are not any medical facilities? And finally, dozens of bodies are lying all over the village in that sweltering heat, but still they don't decompose and stink but remain fresh and in pristine condition!!Nevertheless, it is a reasonably good horror film with an interesting story about kids from hell, and the children look quite sinister and evil. Nowadays we have seen so many movies about child psychopaths that this film may seem a bit lame to us, but we must think that when it first came out in 1976 it must have been quite shocking to audiences. I have recently seen the Mexican remake made two years ago, and it is virtually a carbon copy of this original almost shot by shot. If you want to remake something, at least try to make it better, use your imagination to improve the camera-work, take some time to revise the script so there will be not plot-holes the size of a bulldozer in it, and definitely get a bunch of kids who really look and act creepy and not like a kindergarten class!

Who Can Kill a Child? starts in Spain where British couple Tom (Lewis Flander) & his pregnant wife Evelyn (Prunella Ransome) are on holiday, however with a recent spate of dead bodies being found washed up on the beach & the noisy fiesta fireworks every night Evelyn says she wants some peace & quiet. The couple decide to visit a small island named Almanzora that Tom know's, with a small population of about a hundred people & some beautiful scenery the tranquil Spanish island seems ideal. Tom & Evelyn set out by boat & reach Almanzora but are surprised to find the village almost completely deserted, apart from some random children running & playing in the streets there doesn't seem to be any adults or sign of life anywhere. The true horror of what Tom & Evelyn have stumbled upon becomes clear whey they witness a young girl beat an old man to death, they quickly discover that an unknown madness has turned all the children into killers...Also known under the titles Island of the Damned, Island of Death, Death is Child's Play, Trapped & Would You Kill a Child? the original title of this Spanish production was ¿Quién Puede Matar a un Niño? & it was written & directed by Narciso Ibáñez Serrador based on a Spanish novel called El Juego de los Niños by Juan José Plans, with a strong reputation that precedes it I was really looking forward to seeing Who Can Kill a Child? but now having seen it I feel nothing but disappointment. I keep seeing the words 'horror masterpiece' in comments & reviews but I just don't get the love for this, I really don't. At one hour & fifty two minutes long (uncut) it felt like it went on forever & it really dragged ion places, now I wouldn't mind a slow moving film if the story was engaging or interesting enough to maintain my attention & reward my patience but I never felt Who Can Kill a Child? did. The whole issue surrounding the killer children was left deliberately ambiguous which I didn't mind but why didn't the child attack & kill Tom & Evelyn straight away? Surely there is more than one way to get to the peer & the boats? While the basic question posed by the title is a disturbing & makes for a unsettling premise for a film I don't think Tom had to kill any of the children to escape. Also what happens when the children grow up & become adults? Is there like a cut off age? The day you turn eighteen you will be slaughtered but not before? To me the majority of the film felt like endless hots of a Spanish town without anyone there, the basic mystery element of what happened to the adults is there but it can only take the film so far & when that's all the film has in terms of actual plot I struggle to see how it can be called a masterpiece. Things pick up towards the end but once Evelyn's unborn baby in her womb kills her from the inside credibility starts to go out the window. Personally I don't think Who Can Kill a Child? has anything to say, I don't consider it intelligent or deep & for me it is what it is with no hidden message or profound meaning.While I wasn't impressed with the script & story I did like the look of Who Can Kill a Child? with it's nice Spanish locations, the photography is nice & captures the sun drench heat as well as the isolation quite well. It's certainly a handsome looking film. I suspect the only real horror meant here was purely the fact that children were behind what was going on, there's not much attempt to set up any set-pieces or have any big scares apart from the loudest & most annoying phone suddenly ringing at various points. There's not much blood or gore, an old man is hit with his walking cane & then strung up, a few children are shot & hit with wooden beams at the end but otherwise Who Can Kill a Child is pretty restrained. The opening sequence features about five minutes of real life war footage of children getting caught up in the atrocities & the suffering they endure. I'm not sure why it's there really but it's easily the most horrific & disturbing part of the film.Filmed in Spain the soundtrack is split between Tom & Evelyn who speak English & everyone else who speaks Spanish, it does get quite annoying actually. The scenery is nice & it looks different to most horror films out there but I just didn't enjoy the film overall. The acting is alright, apparently director Narciso Ibáñez Serrador wanted Anthony Hopkins to play the lead of Tom.Who Can Kill a Child? is a film that I have actually wanted to track down & see for years having seen all the glowing reviews & thinking it sounded like a great film but having finally watched it I feel nothing but disappointment for what is a good looking & well made film with a few decent moments that suffers from a poor script & a Snail's pace.