Who Can Kill a Child? (1976)
(¿Quién puede matar a un niño?/Death is Child's Play/Island of the Damned)
Country: SP
Technical: Eastmancolor 107m
Director: Narciso Ibáñez Serrador
Cast: Lewis Fiander, Prunella Ransome
Synopsis:
An Englishman takes his expectant wife away from the noise of the Spanish coast to visit an island he knew as a young man, but it appears to be deserted except for the children. Soon, though, they begin to discover bodies.
Review:
As the title sequence makes clear, children have so often been the victims through history of Man's deadly games, that they decide to play a few of their own. This celebrated Spanish horror film follows in the footsteps of Village of the Damned and the diabolical child films of the seventies to produce something more low-key and unsettling than its florid contemporaries. This is not to say that there is no gore, but it is sparingly applied and the film reserves its most unsettling moment for the unseen death of the mother at the hands of her unborn child (some of which scenes were apparently trimmed by the BBFC on initial release). The cinematography and general technical credits are impeccable (unlike other stuff of this kind being made in Spain or Italy at the same time), and the leads, who mostly had TV careers, contribute creditable performances, especially Ransome. Good to see such an unusual setting for this type of film being used so well, the town's white buildings and deserted streets seen under a baking hot sun, but as a premise the story only really takes us so far; fine if you don't mind the unexplained.
(¿Quién puede matar a un niño?/Death is Child's Play/Island of the Damned)
Country: SP
Technical: Eastmancolor 107m
Director: Narciso Ibáñez Serrador
Cast: Lewis Fiander, Prunella Ransome
Synopsis:
An Englishman takes his expectant wife away from the noise of the Spanish coast to visit an island he knew as a young man, but it appears to be deserted except for the children. Soon, though, they begin to discover bodies.
Review:
As the title sequence makes clear, children have so often been the victims through history of Man's deadly games, that they decide to play a few of their own. This celebrated Spanish horror film follows in the footsteps of Village of the Damned and the diabolical child films of the seventies to produce something more low-key and unsettling than its florid contemporaries. This is not to say that there is no gore, but it is sparingly applied and the film reserves its most unsettling moment for the unseen death of the mother at the hands of her unborn child (some of which scenes were apparently trimmed by the BBFC on initial release). The cinematography and general technical credits are impeccable (unlike other stuff of this kind being made in Spain or Italy at the same time), and the leads, who mostly had TV careers, contribute creditable performances, especially Ransome. Good to see such an unusual setting for this type of film being used so well, the town's white buildings and deserted streets seen under a baking hot sun, but as a premise the story only really takes us so far; fine if you don't mind the unexplained.
(¿Quién puede matar a un niño?/Death is Child's Play/Island of the Damned)
Country: SP
Technical: Eastmancolor 107m
Director: Narciso Ibáñez Serrador
Cast: Lewis Fiander, Prunella Ransome
Synopsis:
An Englishman takes his expectant wife away from the noise of the Spanish coast to visit an island he knew as a young man, but it appears to be deserted except for the children. Soon, though, they begin to discover bodies.
Review:
As the title sequence makes clear, children have so often been the victims through history of Man's deadly games, that they decide to play a few of their own. This celebrated Spanish horror film follows in the footsteps of Village of the Damned and the diabolical child films of the seventies to produce something more low-key and unsettling than its florid contemporaries. This is not to say that there is no gore, but it is sparingly applied and the film reserves its most unsettling moment for the unseen death of the mother at the hands of her unborn child (some of which scenes were apparently trimmed by the BBFC on initial release). The cinematography and general technical credits are impeccable (unlike other stuff of this kind being made in Spain or Italy at the same time), and the leads, who mostly had TV careers, contribute creditable performances, especially Ransome. Good to see such an unusual setting for this type of film being used so well, the town's white buildings and deserted streets seen under a baking hot sun, but as a premise the story only really takes us so far; fine if you don't mind the unexplained.