1976 ‘¿Quién puede matar a un niño?’ Directed by Chicho Ibáñez Serrador
A couple of English tourists arrive at the island of Almanzora, off the Spanish Mediterranean coast, where they discover that there are no adults in a small fishing village, only some children who stare at them and smile mysteriously.
Lewis Fiander Prunella Ransome Antonio Iranzo Miguel Narros María Luisa Arias Marisa Porcel Juan Cazalilla Luis Ciges Antonio Canal Aparicio Rivero Fabián Conde Andrés Gómez Maria Druille Lourdes de la Cámara Roberto Nauta José Luis Romero Javier de la Cámara Marian Salgado Cristina Torres Luis Mateos Adela Blanco Juan Carlos Romero Julio Jesús Parra Carlos Parra Juan Antonio Balandín Jr. Pedro Balandín Chicho Ibáñez Serrador
Island of the Damned, Trapped!, The Hex Massacre, Los niños, Death is Child's Play, La isla de los malditos, Island of Death, Quem Pode Matar uma Criança?, Игры убийц, Opstand in jaar 2000, Scream, The Hex, Ein Kind zu töten…, ザ・チャイルド, Czy zabiłbyś dziecko?, Vem kan döda ett barn?, Would You Kill a Child?, Tödliche Befehle aus dem All, Les Révoltés de l'an 2000, Ma come si può uccidere un bambino?, 谁能杀死孩子？, Os Meninos, Μεγάλη σφαγή στο καταραμένο νησί, Ki képes megölni egy gyereket?, 누가 아이들을 죽일 수 있을까?, Кто может убить ребенка?
Argentina16
Mar del Plata Film Festival
Finland
Night Visions Film Festival
Netherlands
BUTFF
Spain
Phenomena (original version)
France
Festival Premiers Plans d'Angers
Spain18
Germany18
France16
Japan
UK
Sweden15
Mexico
France
France
Netherlands12
France
Argentina
Finland
France
Germany
Japan
Mexico
Netherlands
Spain
Sweden
UK
When a film starts with real footage from various wars in which we see children suffering and dying, you know it's not going to be an 'easy' watch. And it isn't, not by a long shot.
What makes it stand out is not gore or easy scares, it's atmosphere. It evokes a feeling of 'wrongness', caused by the scariest antagonists possible, children. These kids do the most horrible things and therein lies the strength of this film. It's the disconnect between the rational expectations you have when you see a child and the sadistic things they eventually do. This slow realisation is acted out really well by the two leads. Even though I expected it, the inevitable conclusion still shocked me.
There is a lot to admire in this film, it has something to say, the acting is very good, but what I liked most is that it doesn't try to give any easy explanations.
Nice little film about an English couple that has to fight their way out of an entire village of evil kids who enjoy beating the crap out of adults.
When it comes to the film's positives, Serrador does a fantastic job behind the camera, especially with the way he gradually increases the tension. While some scenes are shot and acted in a way that comes off as funny rather than scary (the church scene comes to mind), the director manages to create this great level of tension, assisted by minimalistic music by Waldo de los Rios, once everything hits the ceiling and the kids go from passive to aggressive. It could have been more effective if the film didn't rely…
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Who Can Kill A Child? begins with an intro/overture composed of newsreel footage of XXth Century Atrocities in which children suffered the worst losses, as they always do. Our ability to accept this fact, that adult action/state violence will inevitably kill hundreds, thousands, millions of children, and yet continue our path in the world without alteration, is the central horror of Who Can Kill A Child? Although not an allegory for any specific scenario or event, decolonial/anti-imperial and youth revolts against existing systems are broadly evoked. There is always a calculus in the adult mind of how many children is it acceptable to kill to get the business deals, land grabs, tax cuts, ideological architecture, etc, desired at the moment,…
Maaan, this is another proof that a film can manage to do great horror even when things happen in the daylight. Even though things start to get really pretty super duper ugly and terryfing until we're a little over halfway through the film, I didn't find the previous minutes that lead up to it boring at all. Everything was building up with a great suspense that kept me on the edge of my seat from the moment that Evelyn and Tom arrived to Almanzora. I mean, I really like lonely places because I hate crowds but damn, despite the fact that Almanzora looked so picturesque and beautiful, the loneliness of the island was truly unsettling, and of course the kids…
this movie is probably one of the most underrated films in Horror movie history. the ending reminded me of Night of the Living dead (pisses you off), but still a great film.
An exceptionally harrowing and relentless piece of cinema! This is an excerpt of a conversation from the film itself which showed early signs on how unapologetic the director was going to be -
- Killing your kids so they're not made to suffer for the mistakes we make? What was the director's name?
- Fellini
- Italian? Of course a fascist, just like Mussolini. They are both crazy!
The film begins with a montage of acts of war and poverty and their effects on children. As the opening credits start coming up intermittently along with it, the sound of children making sounds and laughing can be heard which makes an instant impact. The film cuts to the main story where…
Holy fuck that ending!!!!!!!!! 🙌🏻
This is basically a Spanish Children of the Corn movie starring a 70’s UK version of Donald Sutherland (Lewis Fiander) and a 60’s UK version of Mia Farrow (Prunella Ransome).
Oh yeah this movie rules. Just a surprisingly solid horror film.
The story follows an English man and his pregnant wife as they travel through Spain on a vacation. Their main destination is the island of Almanzora, however once they arrive the place is somewhat deserted except for the kids. Soon enough they start to find dead bodies and these kids are not letting up. Calamity ensues.
First off, this is a pretty well shot film and the bluray of it looks stunning. I was already sold on how slick this was for such an obscure film so having that bluray make the visuals pop even more made for an extra fun experience.
Conceptually it feels a bit on the…
A violent slice of 70's horror, with some brutal themes about the cost of war, and the morality of self preservation. It plays almost like a cult/zombie movie, except the members/hoard are replaced with some seriously deranged children. The plot has a certain ambiguity to itself, but it's never hard to understand. This in turn gives it a genuinely creepy vibe throughout the runtime, and the finale, while slightly predictable, wraps it up in classic horror movie fashion.
The acting is also fantastic, with Lewis Fiander delivering a standout lead performance as Tom. Prunella Ransome matches his energy well, and their progressively uneasy feelings about this strange situation are portrayed flawlessly. The children don't have a lot to say, but…
Who Can Kill a Child? is a hell of a good question since most movies can’t bear to do such a thing, but this Spanish horror flick curio by director Narciso Ibáñez Serrador ("The House That Screamed") gets it done. A man and his pregnant wife (Lewis Fiander and Prunella Ransome) are stuck on an island off the Spanish coast, find it absent of adults, and soon find themselves fending off bad children – they’re possessed! There is nothing important about this movie, but it is exciting. Its' most horrific predicament is when a mother learns she is tethered helplessly to evil itself.
The question is answered by the end of the opening credits. We see documentary footage of various conflicts and humanitarian crises from throughout the 20th century—the Holocaust; wars in Korea, Vietnam, India and Pakistan; famine in Africa—while a narrator explains the context for each event and on-screen text provides the statistics of child casualties.
Who can kill a child? We all can. In a world where children suffer for the sins of adults, we are all of us guilty of it every day. Either our governments carry it out in our names, or we allow it to happen through selfishness or inaction.
The question then becomes: how might we react when the children start killing back? And what could that…
