Bloody Birthday (1981)
In 1970, three children are born at the height of a total eclipse. Due to the sun and moon blocking Saturn, which controls emotions, they have become heartless killers ten years later, and are able to escape detection because of their youthful and innocent facades. A boy and his teenage sister become endangered when they stumble onto the bloody truth.
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Redundant and unnecessary.
Fresh and Exciting
best movie i've ever seen.
Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.
Review is mostly nostalgia, but I LOVEd horror movies as a young kid and this is one of the earlier ones I saw. So, really a list of my old-time faves and not a legit review--I know more than anyone the danger of nostalgia and how bad some of these are, but hey. In no particular order and omitting the obvious franchises like Freddie and Jason: -Happy Birthday to Me (hello blind Mary from little house 🏡 on the prairie) -Alice Sweet Alice (hello little Brooke shields) -Blood Birthday -He knows you're alone (head in the fish tank, Tom Hanks, scary movie theater bathroom) -Bloody birthday -Mother's Day -April fools day (Deborah foreman and Clayton rohner version aka the original one) -dolls -troll (questionable in the horror category, enjoyed it in elementary school, also apparently remade. Sort of a creepy Batteries Not Included. Because, trolls. -The Kiss ((or maybe I just loved Meredith Salinger in dream a little dream. Also, escalators scare me.) -Children of the Corn,Linda Hamilton edition. -Sleepaway Camp 1 and 2 -Cutting Class (latecomer. Cheesy. But young Brad P and Donovan Leitch. And Shannen Dougherty-Esque Jill Scholen with her terrific raspy voice)Probably more but phone typing sucks...all great movies for some reasons.
A lot of fun, a lot of kills and effectively devious in its simplicity. The main three bad kids are pretty charismatic, considering the low budget side of 'Bloody birthday'. Then, there are some pretty teen girls of the legal age for the more spicy, topless scenes, and we're getting closer to a truly fun horror film from the (in)famous '80s.The story does not make much sense, with Jupiter being blacked out by the moon when the three killer kids are born, but who really cares? The kills are fun, the cast is pretty enthusiastic and the atmosphere of yet another American smalltown is caught on screen more than well enough.Yes, if this is the sort of cult horror you seek, you can't be disappointed. 8 out of 10.
Three 10 year old kids who were born during a solar eclipse, become serial killers with no consciences because Saturn was blocked during the eclipse - um, OK, whatever gimmick works to get these kids murdering is fine with me. It's an above average slasher, which doesn't really mean much since most of the subgenre is below average, but it's competently made and feels more like a demented black comedy than a horror flick. The kids do a good job and seem to have a blast being as bad as possible, turning their neighborhood into slasher territory. There are some elements here lifted from Halloween, despite being barely anything like the Carpenter film - especially a tracking shot down a suburban street with our meek lead and her friend, who even gets a quick visit from her cop father - perhaps a misinformed producer decision to cash in on a film that's nothing like the one they're making. There's a quick blink and you miss it appearance from the American Ninja himself, the anti- charismatic Michael Dudikoff. Bloody Birthday isn't especially bloody, but this lunacy is never anything but entertaining.
Three children are born during an eclipse, which somehow, ten years later, causes them to go haywire and start murdering locals. They strangle a girl and brain her boyfriend with a spade before burying them. A sheriff (one of the kid's father) gets knocked about with a baseball bat. Next up is little Timmy, who goes to school with the trio - he gets locked in a fridge and left to suffocate.Which is quite a suspenseful scene. Luckily, Timmy manages to escape and it's down to his sister and himself to try and convince the town that these kids have gone Michael Myers on everyone. Problem is - can folks be convinced that three ten year olds have turned serial killer. And can they stay alive long enough to tell anyone.The sight of kids shooting, strangling and such like is quite unnerving at first, and although this film starts off quite strong, I felt it lost it's way towards the end when it started pulling its punches. That said, Bloody Birthday was a film that passed me by years ago and I'm glad I've watched it now. The scene with the fridge and the kids trying to run down Timmy's sister were done well, and there's an arrow in the eye bit for folks that like that. More nudity than I expected too, so nothing to complain about there I guess.No classic (at least to me), but still worth tracking down to see a different take on the slasher film. As far as I could see there wasn't any reason for the kids going ballistic, but then I'm not one for paying attent