Who Can Kill a Child? (1976)

A couple of English tourists arrive on an island where all the children have gone crazy and are murdering the adults.

Director:

Narciso Ibáñez Serrador

Writers:

Juan José Plans (novel), Narciso Ibáñez Serrador (screenplay) (as Luis Peñafiel)

Stars:

Lewis Fiander, Prunella Ransome, Antonio Iranzo

2 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Lewis Fiander	...	Tom
Prunella Ransome	...	Evelyn
Antonio Iranzo	...	Father of Crying Girl
Miguel Narros	...	Guardacostas 1
María Luisa Arias	...	(as Mª Luisa Arias)
Marisa Porcel
Juan Cazalilla
Luis Ciges	...	Enrique Amorós - the Postman
Antonio Canal
Aparicio Rivero
Fabián Conde	...	Camera shop clerk
Andrès Gomez	...	(as Andrés Gómez)
Maria Druille	...	Child (Crying daughter)
Lourdes de la Cámara	...	Child (Lourdes)
Roberto Nauta	...	Child

Storyline

A couple of English tourists rent a boat to visit the fictitious island of Almanzora, just off the southern Spanish coast. When they arrive, they find the town deserted of adults, there's only children who don't speak but stare at them with eerie smiles. They soon discover that all the children of the island have been posessed by a mysterious force or madness which they can pass from one to another, and which makes them attack and murder their elders, who can't defend themselves because nobody dares to kill a child...

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Plot Keywords:

island | tourist | child | boat | murder | 

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Taglines:

A nice place to visit, but you could never LIVE there!

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Genres:

Fantasy | Horror

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Spain

Language:

English Spanish German

Release Date:

June 1978 (USA)

Also Known As:

Island of the Damned

Filming Locations:

Almuñécar, Granada, Andalucía, Spain

Company Credits

Production Co:

Penta Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min 107 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

For the scene in which the children use a corpse as a piñata the shots with the children were filmed separately substituting a punching bag for the actor who plays the dead body.

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Goofs

When Tom finds the switchboard operator's dead body, she is breathing as he leans over her.

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Quotes

Evelyn: What did the man of the pension tell you?
Tom: Just that something strange had happened to the kids on the island.
Evelyn: Strange... But what?
Tom: I don't know. Some sort of madness. I can't understand this.

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Connections

References The Birds (1963)

User Reviews

Children of the damned

While on vacation, a man and his pregnant wife visit an island that the former knows from his past. They arrive to find that the place is not how he remembered. In fact, it appears to be quite deserted aside from several children. It isn't too long before they come across an adult. Pity the kids get to him first, killing him and stringing his body up for use as a human piñata. You see, adults are no longer welcome on this island. At least not if they're still among the living.

For my money, "Who Can Kill a Child?" is a masterpiece of the genre. It makes other killer kid films look like jokes in comparison. Originally seeing it via the "Island of the Damned" cut, it's a very tense and unsettling film with some interesting socio-political subtext as relates to child violence. The likable main characters really struggle here, both physically and morally, in a picture as bleak as they come. It has such an impeccable mood and atmosphere to it. The closest comparison I can make is to that of Werner Herzog's short documentary, "La Soufrière". The isolated, disquieted feel of the island is very predominant.

It's unfortunate that director Serrador faded into the land of television after this film. He clearly had a lot to offer the genre.