The Children (1980) World Northal/Horror RT: 90 minutes Rated R (gruesome violence and images, brief nudity, drug use) Director: Max Kalmanowicz Screenplay: Max Kalmanowicz and Carlton J. Albright Music: Harry Manfredini Cinematography: Barry Abrams Release date: August 1980 (Philadelphia, PA) Cast: Martin Shakar, Gil Rogers, Gale Garnett, Shannon Bolin, Tracy Griswold, Joy Glaccum, Jeptha Evans, Sarah Albright, Nathanael Albright, Julie Carrier, Michelle LeMothe, Edward Terry, Peter Maloney, Jessie Abrams, Clara Evans, Rita Montone, John Codiglia, Martin Brennan, Arthur Chase, Suzanne Barnes, Diane Deckard, David Platt, Ray Delmolino, Michael Carrier, June Berry, X. Ben Fakackt (voice). Box Office: N/A
Rating: ***
I remember seeing ads for the horror movie The Children on TV when I was 12YO. I was intrigued because it was young children doing all the killing, almost like something out of The Omen except none of these kids was the Anti-Christ. There’s a less spiritual reason for their homicidal tendencies.
As the movie opens, there’s a leak at a nuclear plant in a small New England town. A cloud of toxic yellow gas forms. A school bus containing the few children that live in Ravensback drives right through it. That’s when things start to get weird.
Town sheriff Billy Hart (Rogers, The Panic in Needle Park) finds the school bus abandoned by the side of the road with no sign of the five children or driver. It doesn’t take long for the children to reveal themselves in a nearby cemetery. They appear unharmed, but something is different about them. Besides the strange expressions on their faces, their fingernails are completely black. Anybody they touch is immediately burned to death. It looks like the anti-nuke people are right about exposure to nuclear power being harmful; however, they never could’ve imagined the danger would manifest itself in this way.
Over the course of 24 hours, the children hunt down all the adults in town and give them a great big hug. A few tortured screams later, they’re burnt to a crisp. Hart and one of the fathers, John Freemont (Shakar, Saturday Night Fever), spend the movie trying to figure out what’s going on. Hart sets up a roadblock at the town’s border, a futile action since the danger already lives among them. John worries about his pregnant wife (Garnett, My Big Fat Greek Wedding) and younger son (Abrams) at home by themselves. The killer children, one of them his own daughter, could show up at moment. Bullets have no effect on the little monsters; the only way to kill them is to cut off their hands. That’s just what Hart and John have to do to rid their town of the threat of complete annihilation.
The Children is a low-budget job all the way with its cheap special effects, terrible acting and predictable storyline. It’s neither scary nor suspenseful. You know that every adult in town (and the one kid too young for school) will fall victim to the radioactive rugrats sooner or later. It’s not such a big deal when you consider Ravensback boasts a population of about 20. It consists of the usual types you find in small towns. The handsome young deputy (Griswold) is more interested in flirting with a slutty local girl (Glaccum, The Prowler) than doing his job. The crusty old shopkeeper Molly (Bolin, If Ever I See You Again) doubles as the police dispatcher. One of the mothers (Montone, Maniac), a wealthy socialite wannabe more interested in smoking pot and sunbathing nude by the pool than parenting, doesn’t even notice her daughter didn’t come home from school.
Like most in its genre, The Children isn’t concerned with trivialities like character development. It doesn’t give you a chance to get to know anybody before they buy the farm. One of the children has two mothers. His bio-mom Leslie (Barnes, Girls Nite Out) appears to have some sort of psychological issue. Her live-in lover Joyce (LeMothe, Manny’s Orphans), who hates Sheriff Hart for some unknown reason, acts as her caretaker. It seems to me their relationship is worth exploring, especially since director Max Kalmanowicz saw fit to introduce it in the first place. Like most of the other characters in The Children, we know them only on a superficial level.
I guess it’s okay since the adults are simply present to be victims of the killer kids. John and his wife are the only characters afforded any development, but that raises another point. Let me put it to you in the form of a SPOLIER. If there’s a pregnant character in a movie like this, it’s a safe bet that the baby will end up having some sort of abnormality. It all goes to the high predictability factor of the movie.
To its credit, The Children has a great score by Harry Manfredini of Friday the 13th fame. Sure, the two scores sound similar, but it’s still effective. The movie also boasts some nicely gruesome makeup effects. When the children’s parents get burned up, it’s quite a sight. Granted, it’s obviously latex, but it’s still cooler than anything CGI could do today. Surprisingly, the movie is light on actual gore. When the children get their hands chopped off, there’s no red spurt to accompany it. Is that a side effect of exposure to radioactivity? Also, why does it only affect the children? On second thought, I don’t need to know.
40 years after its release, I find myself asking if anybody really thought The Children was scary. It’s definitely freaky. Those killer kids with their pale skin and black fingernails are somewhat unnerving. I’m also wondering if the makers intended to deliver a serious message about the dangers of nuclear power. Or am I giving The Children more credit than it deserves? I have a feeling we’re not supposed to examine it all that closely. It is what it is, a cheap horror movie meant to thrill teens on a Friday night. It’s certainly a product of its less enlightened time. Today’s audiences would gasp in horror at the sight of a pregnant woman smoking a cigarette.
Who would’ve ever thought that a cheesy, forgettable fright flick like The Children would not only develop a cult following, but also be adapted into a stage musical by non-professional actors? Now that would be something to see. The Troma DVD release includes a scene from the stage show as a bonus feature. What it doesn’t include is a scene where the sheriff flirts with a diner waitress. I found it on YouTube. It doesn’t affect the plot in any way; I guess it was cut for time.
I didn’t see The Children until January ’87 when I rented it from The Video Den. I liked it although I was disappointed in the lack of gore. I’ve developed an appreciation for it over the years. It has that purity in form I admire in 80s horror movies. It’s doesn’t try to be all self-important. It’s a silly horror flick that’s more apt to tickle the funny bone than shatter the nerves. It’s good goofy fun.
