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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
-
Yes, it is WIDESCREEN ANAMORPHIC ENHANCED
OK, great film. Spooky, funny, sexy. The image quality not mind-blowing on this release, but hey, I'll take what I can get. It's been too long a wait for this. VCI needs to do more releases like this.
Someone said this is full-screen, and not anamorphic... but it actually is. Watched it on my friend's widescreen 16x9 TV, and it looked fine.
If you love this film, buy this DVD.
Rating: 
-
Hidden Piece of 80's Horror Hoopla
OK, I was suspicious of this title initially, thinking how could any other horror movie capitalize on birthdays better than Happy Birthday to Me? Anyway, this gem for the diehard horror fan sells! It keeps you entertained! The film is obviously a "Halloween" knock-off, but many horror films from around this time were. I would characterize it as "Halloween" meets Village of the Damned. The camp value includes actress Susan Strasberg performing rather poorly as a school marm, and Julie Brown, who is better known for her song parodies ('Cause I'm A Blonde) than her acting. Yet, she does a great job portraying the requisite "hot gal" character in this type of movie. Also, note that one of the evil kids is portrayed by an actor who would later have a long career in television.
Check it out if you are hungering for horror from this era that hasn't really seen the light of day. If anything, it is a blast seeing the dreadful carpeting, wallpaper, etc. adorning the characters' homes in this flick!
Rating: -
Bloody Birthday
Awesome!!!
If you like old movies from the early 1980s then you will like this one.
Hint Evil children
I liked this movie the first time that I saw it back in 1981 or 1982.
I was a young girl when I first saw this movie. At times, I thought that I dreamt of this movie that I imagined it. I was happy to see that amazon.com had a few copies for purchase. When I first got the DVD, I viewed this movie by myself. Later on that week, I watched this movie with my mother. She said it was ok. A few days afterward I watched this movie with my boyfriend. He had the same reaction that I did. If you want to know what reation that was then you must buy this DVD.
Rating: 
-
Kid killers, relentless and p-oed
[good things]
I really liked the little kids in this movie, they were relentless, evil and just down right hateful. The movie was very suspenseful, even though we knew who all of the killers were from the start. The acing was good, and even though the kills weren't bloody or entirely unique, they were great. The directing and photography were also good for this genre. There is also a scene where the killer is wearing a sack over his head, it gave me alot of great visions of Friday The 13th: Part 2, The Town That Dreaded Sundown, etc.
All in all, I like that this movie featured young kids as the killers, something that is not done very often.
[the bad]
With movies like this you have to take the good with the bad, and the lack of blood took alot away from this movie. Since it featured kids as the killer, the movie was lacking alot, such as worthwhile dialogue. Other than that I reall don't have much complaints.
[final thoughts]
What a nice find this movie was. I had never heard about it until recently, I bought it and it became an instant favorite of mine. Billy (Jane) Jacoby plays the lead adolescent killer, and does a great job. Definitely the highlight character of the movie. The girl who played his companion (who's name escapes me at this second) was definitely a great supporting role. Between the two they made this movie work.
At any rate, this is an old and forgotten gem of the genre, if you liked The Good Son, I can almost guarantee you'll like this.
Rating: -
"Just because you all have the same birthday doesn't mean you're special."
Are children inherently evil? After watching such films as The Bad Seed (1956), The Brood (1979), Children of the Corn (1984), Devil Times Five (1974), Village of the Damned (1960), Children of the Damned (1963), Mikey (1992), The Godsend (1980), The Paper Boy (1994), The Good Son (1993), The Omen (1976), It's Alive (1974), and this film, Bloody Birthday (1981), I have to say yes, children are inherently evil little no-goodniks who spend most of their time thinking of ways to harm us adults...hell, look at the film Logan's Run (1976)...once you reached the age of 30, that was all she wrote...co-written and directed by Ed Hunt (Starship Invasions, Plague, The Brain), the film features Elizabeth Hoy (The Blues Brothers), Billy Jayne (Cujo, "Parker Lewis Can't Lose"), Andy Freeman (The Corpse Grinders 2), Lori Lethin (Return to Horror High), K.C. Martel (The Amityville Horror), Melinda Cordell ("The Young and the Restless"), and former MTV VJ West Coast Julie Brown (Earth Girls Are Easy, Medusa: Dare to Be Truthful), who's been a veritable on the Dr. Demento radio program with her song "The Homecoming Queen's Got a Gun". Also appearing (in bit parts) are José Ferrer (Dracula's Dog, The Swarm), Susan Strasberg (Taste of Fear, The Manitou), Joe Penny ("Riptide", "Jake and the Fatman"), Cyril O'Reilly (Porky's, Navy Seals), and Michael Dudikoff (Bachelor Party, American Ninja), in a `don't blink or you'll miss him' role.
As the title credits appear, I find myself watching something called `oody Birthda'...what the hell? I'll talk more about this later...once past the opening credits, we're told it's the year 1970, and José Ferrer is rushing into a hospital to deliver three babies from three, separate mothers...turns out all three babies are born about the same time, and during a solar eclipse (that smacks of bad mojo if you ask me). Fast-forward about ten years, and we see a young couple making out in the graveyard at night (nothing gets a girl hotter than tombstones and dead bodies). The pair is getting hot and heavy, but due to fear of being caught, they retire to a freshly dug, yet empty plot (now I'm really turned on). The noises persist, the man sticks his head up to check things out, and has a face to face meeting with the business end of a shovel...followed by the woman getting herself strangulated by a jump rope, and then the pair buried in the dirt...as the film progresses, we learn the three children born at the beginning of the movie are tight friends, and nearing their tenth birthday, for which a huge party is planned...there's Curtis (Jayne), Debbie (Hoy), and Steven (Freeman). They seem normal enough children...except for the fact all three are unconscionable, manipulative, killing machines, doling out death at any given opportunity...especially so if you cross them...which is what happens to high school student Joyce (Lethin) and her younger brother Timmy (Martel), whose parents happen to be out of town. Seems Timmy witnessed one of their crimes (although I don't think he fully understood what he was seeing), and now the terrible trio have decided he's got to go, along with his sister once she gets involved. And then let's not forget Miss Davis (Strasberg), the oh so strict elementary school teacher, who probably wouldn't be so bad if she ever had that steel rod surgically removed from her behind. Yes, this birthday is shaping up to be a real doozy, that is if there's anyone left to enjoy it...
I did like this movie. It may not have much of an actual story, but there is plenty of creepy thrills, quite a few chills, and even some laughs, if you have a gruesome sense of humor like me. One strength the film has is in the creation of suspense, which I wasn't expecting, as the three, little, seemingly innocent children lure various victims to their eventual doom. The death scenes may not be spectacular, but I don't think they were meant to be, as more focus was put towards the uneasy build up prior to these scenes. None of the performers stood out, but, then again, no one was raucously bad. José Ferrer and Susan Strasberg are prominently promoted as being in the film, but that's really just the filmmakers capitalizing on their fame, as Ferrer appeared for about a total of one minute, his time divided into two scenes, while Ms. Strasberg had a little larger role, but not much (she probably had all of about 5 minutes of screen time). One thing I did appreciate was the dialog wasn't awful, and director Hunt did manage to work the cast, which included a number of children (who can be notoriously difficult to work with), very well. I suppose the most memorable scene involved the character of Joyce, played by Julie Brown, who was the older sister to Debbie, one of the three, evil wee ones. Seems Debbie charges the neighborhood boys to peep on sis as she changes clothes, and business is good (one sequence has Brown, who has excellent mellonage, stripping down and dancing around to some lame rock music). Later on, after Joyce and Debbie have a falling out, Debbie puts her bow an arrow set to good use, luring Joyce to look through the hole by making noises on the other side of the wall...you can probably imagine what follows...besides Ms. Brown baring her assets (and her chest set), there are a couple other scenes, featuring other women, with some nice, all natural nekkidness, if you're into that kind of thing (I know I am). All in all a sinister, ghoulish thriller worth seeing if you're expectations aren't to high. Also, I think it's important to mention that while this movie did come out at the height of the popularity of the slasher genre in the early 80's, it's not of that ilk.
This VCI Entertainment release claims a widescreen (1.78:1) anamorphic print on the DVD case, but all I got was a full screen, extremely cropped picture, one noticeable from the beginning as the title is cut off. The picture quality on the DVD was decent, as was the Dolby Digital 2.0 audio, which wasn't always clear, but very loud. There are some extras available, like a bio on the director Ed Hunt, an interview with the producer Max Rosenberg (17:22), who looked about as old as dirt, riddled with liver spots, sporting a pair of binocular eyeglasses, and trailers for various VCI DVD releases like Kiss of the Tarantula (1976), Don't Open the Door (1975), and Homework (1982). Besides the false advertising, I didn't care for the cover art on the DVD case, which I think was originally used on a German promotional poster. The artwork has three children standing in front of a house, the whole affair making the film appear to be one about the supernatural, which wasn't the case. The original U.S. poster artwork was is much better, showing three or four children standing around the corpse of a woman, birthday candles planted on her chest, and one of the children holding a large knife, like he's getting ready to cut into a birthday cake.
Cookieman108
If I learned anything from this movie it's never to stare into holes in closet walls, junked refrigerators make poor hiding places, and beware of malicious looking children in groups of three.
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