Who Can Kill a Child? (1976)

Mr. Serrador establishes once again with this film, that he's perhaps one of the most excellent horror directors out there and that it is a real shame that he didn't advocate his entire career to horror films only. While I'm grateful for all the episodes of "Historias para no dormir" that he directed in Spain, "El Muñeco Maldito" in Argentina and some of his other horror movies like "La Residencia", I can't help condemning the fact that he should have taken more advantage of his gift as a horror director. I think I'm not alone when I say that his creations are one of a kind and that most horror fans are left wanting more. The man who initially became accepted in Spain, Argentina and many other countries, for being the son of another horror legend, managed to build his own remarkable merits. If anyone needs corroboration of that, "Who Can Kill a Child?" is perhaps one of the crudest ways to provide evidence of his splendor. This film portrays children in a way that honestly terrified me and even though some people are probably going to recall something similar in John Wyndham's "Village of the Damned" and Stephen King's "Children of the Corn", this film creates a more mysterious atmosphere, in which nothing seems to have a material explanation. The fact that all of a sudden and for no perceptible motive, children become evil, sadistic, merciless and way more powerful than the grown-ups, is a horrifying idea that makes us wonder what children actually think or do when they're all alone. I'd like to believe that children in real life, are not actually planning some kind of sanguinary mass execution against us, grown ups, but the idea alone, is perhaps one of the cleverest ways to inflict terror. "Who Can Kill a Child?", reminds me of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" in a way, because even though the alleged villains are far from being related, I see a connection in the fact that both films deal with the idea of something that seems harmless and sweet, all of a sudden becomes a terrible punishment for a group of unaided souls. Both films demonstrate the desperation that people would have to go through, if unexpectedly, something that we take for granted becomes our worst nightmare. Written by Juan José Plans and Mr. Serrador himself, "Who Can Kill a Child?" tells the story of a couple of English tourists who take a trip to the unreal Spanish Island of Almanzora for a vacation. When they arrive to the shore, the only ones to receive them are a bunch of strange children who don't seem to show much warmness. Nevertheless, Tom and Evelyn who are actually rather nice and respectful to the locals, don't take the hostility very seriously and go to their hotel with the intention of talking to an grown person to assist them with the things they need. Unfortunately, the entire island seems to be deserted and the only ones to wander around the place, are these mischievous, creepy little children who don't even bother saying a word to them. Everything gets even worse however, when they realize that these children have slaughtered all the grown-ups for some unknown reason and they're most likely the next ones to be butchered. Vulnerable and with no one else to turn to, Tom and Evelyn find themselves harassed by these diabolical kids and the worst part is that there's nothing they can do to fight back, because no matter how dangerous they look….who can kill a child anyway?. Like I stated before, when we take the plot independently from the movie on the whole, I guess we can make a light comparison to "Village of the Damned" or "Children of the Corn", but I think it's safe to say that "Who Can Kill a Child?" is a lot more crude and intriguing. And the best way to give an example of this crudity, would be the opening sequence, in which we see a selection of actual footage about several tragedies that occurred in the world, in which children were the ones to suffer the consequences and pay for the ruthless choices of the grown ups. For instance, the Nazi holocaust, the war in Korea and many other things. It was really appalling (and sort of uncalled for, if I have to be honest) for me to see real life images of ravenous Jewish children carrying their relatives and throwing them inside a big hole or African babies from Niger, completely malformed and skeletal with no energy to even cry. The point of these devastating images, is a way to prove that children are always the ones who suffer because of the adults and their evilness and while Mr. Serrador's method to make his point is beyond debatable, I can't deny that this opening sequence offers one of the most atrocious images I have ever seen in my whole life. Definitely an interesting way to prepare the audience for a crude and cold-blooded film about vicious Spanish children, who are somehow trying to avenge all the children who suffer in the world because of the stupid grown-ups.