fuck them kids

Review of Who Can Kill a Child? (1976) by screenqueeen: 👎 3/5

the thirteenth night in the lonesome hooptober day 8 film 6 cats: 0

54/100

just barely despicably exploitative but not enough to fully put it in the camp of sleaze pure enough to get away with anything, nor is it artistic enough to claim more dimensionality in how it attempts to shock. it still tries to do both, making things feel tonally discarded while picking up the story (or plot? i can't tell) from different attitudes and perspectives, literally in the case of the small handful of adults the english couple interact with. i cared the least about what happened to them and didn't feel much towards the end. when you rip off the ending to NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and package it as something surprising or shocking you've lost a lot of points with me. here's something about me and my tastes: i get giddy when i see kids in horror films and they die on screen in them. this one felt like it had something it was supposed to impart on its viewers (especially with a bummer fucking opening like that) but isn't really a full film if seen through that intention; it doesn't do enough to communicate anything specifically regarding children and them turning into the force that adopts the reins of mortality. i did enjoy the kid with the revolver through the jail window and the crowd of children mowed down with a machine gun. that sequence with the kids playing piñata with a scythe on an old man's fresh corpse was sick as hell but BLOODY BIRTHDAY and THE CHILDREN put this idea to better use.