Carlton J. Albright and Edward Terry were working on ideas for a horror film and they found some unusual inspiration. Being parents themselves, they saw children as being smothering and suffocating, so they thought that would work as something terrifying. Around the same time, the Three Mile Island incident happened, so they decided to incorporate that into the story. Originally, Terry was set to direct, but he had issues with alcohol, and Albright didn’t feel he would work. Instead, he hired Max Kalmanowicz to direct, though much of the cast and crew found him difficult to worth with. Much of the cast was comprised of relatively unknown actors, the biggest star being Martin Shakar from Saturday Night Fever. Around the same time, Sean Cunningham was filming Friday the 13th using the same crew, including composer Harry Manfredini. In June of 1980, The Children was released to drive-ins.
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Synopsis
In the New England town of Ravensback, a school bus of kids drives through a cloud of toxic gas. Local sheriff Billy Hart (Gil Rogers) finds the bus abandoned and orders that the town be locked down. The sheriff goes around town trying to find the kids and asking their parents if they’ve seen them. Soon enough, the kids are found, but it turns out they’ve become zombies who are deadly to the touch. As Sheriff Hart and John Freemont (Martin Shakar) are driving around town, the children make quick work of the adults. Their victims include the local shopkeeper Molly (Shannon Bolin), Deputy Harry Timmons (Tracy Griswold), and his girlfriend Suzie (Joy Glaccum). Eventually, the children start closing in on John’s pregnant wife Cathy (Gale Garnett), so he and Hart defend the house. Will they stop the children, or will they become their next victims?
Review
The Children had the potential to be a fun, trashy exploitation film, but it sadly squanders that potential. The idea of killer radioactive kids is a novel concept, and their pale-faced look is pretty creepy. Also, for a low-budget film, the melting effects are fairly decent, offering some fun cheese to the proceedings. Some shots here and there make the kids especially creepy, such as a shot of their reflection in a window. Plus, this is one of those rare films that isn’t afraid of killing kids, though perhaps a little too much. The plot is pretty straightforward and simple, almost playing like a slight knock-off of Night of the Living Dead. Given the message they went for, parents will probably relate to feeling like their kids are smothering them to death. I’m sure young parents will especially feel the sentiment, like their lives are consumed by their kids.
Unfortunately, other than the concept and a decent score from Harry Manfredini, the film doesn’t have much else to offer. Even at roughly 90 minutes, the film has very slow pacing, much of it amounting to exploring empty houses. Aside from the occasional scene of kids killing people with radioactive hugs, the film is littered with boring filler scenes. It doesn’t help either that much of the acting is very middle-of-the-road, neither particularly good nor bad, just unmemorable. Plus, there aren’t really any characters to get attached to, aside from probably the Sheriff and John. While they have a creepy look, the kids don’t do much other than stumbling around with their arms out. Like I said before, this could’ve been a fun trashy exploitation film, but it doesn’t deliver on what it had. Overall, The Children isn’t terrible, but it’s hardly what I’d call a horror classic.
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