This is one of the best surprises I've had in my recent DVD purchases.
WHO CAN KILL A CHILD? is the uncut version of ISLAND OF THE DAMNED. It's sort of a cross between VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED and THE DEVIL TIMES FIVE (which I didn't think lived up to its hype).
The story involves a husband and wife who go to a small island off the coast of Spain for a vacation. They discover that a group of children have killed the adults without any remorse.
This is an unflinching and sometimes disturbing movie (it starts with actual footage of war atrocities during the opening credits). Your homework assignment is to find a copy and watch it.
It has been added to my Netflix queue.
It will probably be a long time before I get to it though.
It looks very good.
On another note, don't read the wikipedia entry on it. All these people who decide the "Plot" section of an entry on a movie should detail ALL the movies events scene by scene need to be beaten. :hatred:
Sounds pretty interesting though.
It's a terrific film. I read about it on various horror websites and had to go out of my way to rent it (it was in the section "Killer Kids" :teddyr:), but boy was it worth it. Kinda takes a little while to get started, and there's really no explanation for the kids' behavior. But it's very engrossing and you really feel for the main characters.
Quote from: The Burgomaster on March 23, 2010, 08:03:28 PM
This is one of the best surprises I've had in my recent DVD purchases.
WHO CAN KILL A CHILD? is the uncut version of ISLAND OF THE DAMNED. It's sort of a cross between VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED and THE DEVIL TIMES FIVE (which I didn't think lived up to its hype).
The story involves a husband and wife who go to a small island off the coast of Spain for a vacation. They discover that a group of children have killed the adults without any remorse.
This is an unflinching and sometimes disturbing movie (it starts with actual footage of war atrocities during the opening credits). Your homework assignment is to find a copy and watch it.
That's it? I don't have to write a 1,400-word essay? I wish I had your for a teacher. My Master's degree instructors are a bit more demanding. :smile:
I added it to my Amazon wishlist. Do I get partial credit for the assignment? :smile:
I've read about this in mags and books...but haven't seen it! My neighbor Lori has Netflix-I asked her to rent me a double feature of DERANGED/MOTEL HELL and others-I must be nice to her! :tongueout:
Quote from: Jack on March 24, 2010, 12:54:28 PM
I added it to my Amazon wishlist. Do I get partial credit for the assignment? :smile:
We will give you an "incomplete" until you watch it. :teddyr:
We Spanirds are very proud oif this film. It is one of those rare good films that seem to come out from thin air. Regretably, its director, Uruguaian (!) Narciso Ibáñez Serrador didn't follow this path and instead became the creator of several popular TV quiz shows in Spain, an occupation that kept him busy for the next decades.
Before, he had helmed another horror film, "La residencia", and created the TV horror anthology "Historias para no dormir" ("Stories that will keep you awake"), a sort of Spanish answer to "The twilight zone" and "Alfred Hitchcock presents". His last work as a director is precisely a chapter of an aborted reboot of these series called "La culpa", just a few years ago.
Quote from: The Burgomaster on March 23, 2010, 08:03:28 PM
This is one of the best surprises I've had in my recent DVD purchases.
WHO CAN KILL A CHILD? is the uncut version of ISLAND OF THE DAMNED. It's sort of a cross between VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED and THE DEVIL TIMES FIVE (which I didn't think lived up to its hype).
The story involves a husband and wife who go to a small island off the coast of Spain for a vacation. They discover that a group of children have killed the adults without any remorse.
This is an unflinching and sometimes disturbing movie (it starts with actual footage of war atrocities during the opening credits). Your homework assignment is to find a copy and watch it.
Actually the movie is a remake of The Birds (1963)... There are several scenes in the movie that parallels the 1963 film and its more effective here because the children seemed souless.
Great horror story and worth owning :)
Quote from: Neville on March 25, 2010, 12:15:23 PM
We Spanirds are very proud oif this film. It is one of those rare good films that seem to come out from thin air. Regretably, its director, Uruguaian (!) Narciso Ibáñez Serrador didn't follow this path and instead became the creator of several popular TV quiz shows in Spain, an occupation that kept him busy for the next decades.
Before, he had helmed another horror film, "La residencia", and created the TV horror anthology "Historias para no dormir" ("Stories that will keep you awake"), a sort of Spanish answer to "The twilight zone" and "Alfred Hitchcock presents". His last work as a director is precisely a chapter of an aborted reboot of these series called "La culpa", just a few years ago.
I think the movie never got reception it deserved since the movie was known as ISLAND OF THE DAMNED and people (mostly American's) took it as a Village of the Damned rip-off...
Quote from: Skull on March 25, 2010, 12:36:28 PM
I think the movie never got reception it deserved since the movie was known as ISLAND OF THE DAMNED and people (mostly American's) took it as a Village of the Damned rip-off...
During the 1970s, quite a few good European movies were released in the U.S. in edited versions with alternate titles. Unfortunately, the U.S. distributors often ignored the fact that these movies were good and advertised them like they were low-budget, trashy horror films. Another one I can think of is THE NIGHT VISITOR, which is a very good movie starring Max von Sydow.
Quote from: The Burgomaster on March 25, 2010, 04:51:05 PM
Quote from: Skull on March 25, 2010, 12:36:28 PM
I think the movie never got reception it deserved since the movie was known as ISLAND OF THE DAMNED and people (mostly American's) took it as a Village of the Damned rip-off...
During the 1970s, quite a few good European movies were released in the U.S. in edited versions with alternate titles. Unfortunately, the U.S. distributors often ignored the fact that these movies were good and advertised them like they were low-budget, trashy horror films. Another one I can think of is THE NIGHT VISITOR, which is a very good movie starring Max von Sydow.
Thanks for the Internet or I would never knew about such movies as WHO CAN KILL A CHILD? I think I'd bought WHO CAN KILL A CHILD? almost 3 years ago.
Quote from: Neville on March 25, 2010, 12:15:23 PM
We Spanirds are very proud oif this film. It is one of those rare good films that seem to come out from thin air. Regretably, its director, Uruguaian (!) Narciso Ibáñez Serrador didn't follow this path and instead became the creator of several popular TV quiz shows in Spain, an occupation that kept him busy for the next decades.
Before, he had helmed another horror film, "La residencia", and created the TV horror anthology "Historias para no dormir" ("Stories that will keep you awake"), a sort of Spanish answer to "The twilight zone" and "Alfred Hitchcock presents". His last work as a director is precisely a chapter of an aborted reboot of these series called "La culpa", just a few years ago.
Spain seems to have a good history of horror films. Actually, a pretty darn good film industry (I've enjoyed just about every Spanish film that makes it stateside, anyway), just with a low output per year. It's pretty interesting, actually - I think Spain is my favorite of the modern European cinemas, thinking about it.
Neville, can you suggest any other Spanish horror films from the 1970s or early 1980s? That seems like the best era for "serious" horror pretty much everywhere - and just about the only other Spanish horror films from the era I'm aware of are Naschy's films, which don't quite make it into the "serious" category. :)
The "good" era are the 70 and early 80s, there were many horror films made. The problem is that they became increasily cheap an tacky, to the extent a new law was passed to avoid government subventions funding those embarrasments. This, together with a reduction in the number of theatres, killed most of the genre movies. Instead, the government overfunded films they considered more important, such as documenting historical events or adaptations of Spanish literature.
The effects of this law ("Ley Miró", after minister and filmmaker Pilar Miró) are still debated. Some argue it put some order in the Spanish cinema of the time, by redirecting funds to films that at least had chances of being any good, while others argue the overfunding of a certain type of films affected the popularity of Spanish cinema among cinemagoers, asphixiated creativity and crippled the creation of a real industry not dependant on government money.
As for good movies of the era... honestly, I'm quite ignorant. I'm a children of the 80s, and only learnt of people like Paul Naschy much, much later. There are a few interesting films in the 70s I know of, however. "El bosque del lobo" (1970), by Pedro Olea, is a gem, a realistic approach to a real-life XIX century serial killer who claimed to be a werewolf. "Furtivos" (1975) by José Luís borau is a chilling character study of marginal charactters, and "Arrebato", by Iván Zulueta, is a 1979 cult movie drenched in drug use.
And in the 80s there are a lot of interesting crime films, if that's your cup of tea. Check out "Navajeros" or "Colegas" by Eloy de la Iglesia, "Deprisa, deprisa" by Carlos Saura or "Fanny Pelopaja" by Vicente Aranda.
Spanish movies of the 90s and 00s look far more polished and are made more profesionally, but I'm not a big fan of them. They're OK but often feel impersonal, and you can get the same type from UK or France with a bigger budget, specially when it comes to horror. Still, there's a lot to like if you are into serious cinema. Anything by Montxo Armendariz, Victor Erice or José Luís Guerín is likely to fill your cultural needs for a while. If you're only interested in genre films, try Daniel Monzón's films, and those made by Lluís Balagueró and Paco Plaza before they struck gold with [REC].
I've been seeking this movie out for some time now, and just recently got a copy. I think this means I get an 'A'. :wink:
Thanks for the info Neville. I find that kind of stuff fascinating. So, is Spanish cinema still very dependent on government money today? I always find that a kind of a sad situation, where countries with formerly successful film industries become reliant on handouts. Seems like that has become increasingly the case in a lot of European cinema. Think if I ran a government in Europe, I'd have a pretty strict theatrical quota for American film.
Oh yeah, what do you think of Álex de la Iglesia? I liked Accion Mutante some, and really liked Day of the Beast, but haven't seen any others yet.
Just snagged a copy off ebay. Watched it the other night and I LOVED it! The first murder really creeped me out and I especially dug the downbeat ending. Thanx for reccomending this one. :thumbup:
Quote from: Jim H on March 26, 2010, 06:02:16 PM
So, is Spanish cinema still very dependent on government money today? [...] Think if I ran a government in Europe, I'd have a pretty strict theatrical quota for American film.
I'm afraid it still is. As for "foreign" movie quotas, I think the current policy in Spain is that a percentage of films shown in theatres has to be of European origin. Also, any TV channel operating in my country has to use a percentage of its benefits to fund movies. I can't say I find any of these policies neither fair nor succesful. Many movies are produced, but very few end up being really succesful. A failed filmmaker recently criticised the system, stating that local producers are scamming the government by underfunding movies, giving them a s**tty release and then covering up their expenses, and even making a profit, cashing in from the government. It's a disgrace.
Quote from: Jim H on March 26, 2010, 06:02:16 PM
Oh yeah, what do you think of Álex de la Iglesia? I liked Accion Mutante some, and really liked Day of the Beast, but haven't seen any others yet.
He's become one of our more succesful filmakers, although he still has to replicate the succes of
El día de la bestia, or to completely fulfill the (admittedly, extremely high) expectations that were put on him. Yet, all of his films are worth watching, they all stand well above the media, both in entertainment value and in quality. I'd specially recommend
Muertos de risa, a very dark comedy on a duo of comedians who hate each other but can't succeed on their own,
La comunidad, a blend of dark comedy and thriller about a real state salesman who finds a fortune on an abandoned flat, and
Crimen Ferpecto.
His other films are good, but those are his best. Right now he's been busy creating a sci-fi sitcom on TV, but he's supposed to be shooting a new movie anytime soon.
I was very excited when this finally came to dvd not to long ago. Such a great and creepy movie.
This is in my top 50 horror movies of all time for sure. Just misses the top 10.
When I was in my early teens we hired heaps of horror movies but they were all the basic ones that everyone knew about like The Burning, Candyman, Friday the 13th etc. But the one movie I hired the most was Children of the Corn. And when I started getting right into collecting horror movies in 2004 this was one of the first movies that grabbed my attention because the plot sounded so much like Children of the Corn. And once I got it in 2004 I knew where Stephen King got the idea for the Children of the Corn short story that was made into the movie. Can also tell he used The Wicker Man, and The Omen as influences. But enough about Children of the Corn.
How great is Who Can Kill A Child? and how great is Spanish horror? Such atmospheric movies and in my opinion they make the best horror movies in the world and they are my favourite kind of horror movie. I love the settings and locations of Spain and I love the language. I think I like the sound of it better than English! Some of the movies they have made really blow me away. King of the Hill for example. Really great filmmaking.
Quote from: B on July 16, 2010, 01:14:40 AM
How great is Who Can Kill A Child? and how great is Spanish horror? Such atmospheric movies and in my opinion they make the best horror movies in the world and they are my favourite kind of horror movie. I love the settings and locations of Spain and I love the language. I think I like the sound of it better than English! Some of the movies they have made really blow me away. King of the Hill for example. Really great filmmaking.
I'm a big fan of Spanish horror too. Particularly Paul Naschy's movies.