Movie Review- Vile `Bloody Birthday' celebrates evil doings
The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution - August 13, 1986
Author: CAIN, SCOTT, Scott Cain Staff Writer: STAFF
There's a good reason why "Bloody Birthday" has been sitting on shelves for six years: This is a vile picture. Would you believe that the killers are 10 years old? Isn't this going entirely too far? Do we need movies like this?
A prologue explains, as if this bit of information answered every question, that three babies were born during a solar eclipse in Meadowvale, Calif., in 1970. The story then picks up during the week of their collective 10th birthdays. Debbie, Steven and Curtis are angelic-looking classmates and accomplished murderers.
For exercise, they polish off horny teenagers. Their first chosen victim is Debbie's father, the sheriff. The Gang of Three wants him out of the way to gain possession of his pistol. Their teacher is eliminated because she insists that they do homework. How about that for motive?
A spunky classmate named Timmy becomes suspicious and, during an outing in a junkyard, Curtis attempts to lock Timmy inside a refrigerator. This incident is not sufficient to alarm Timmy's older sister, Joyce, the film's theoretical heroine. In the unlikeliest occurrence, Joyce accepts Debbie's request to baby-sit for her, and Joyce obligingly brings Timmy, conveniently setting up an ambush of the only two people who pose a threat.
Of many alarming events, one of the most repellent involves the suggestion that Curtis is putting ant poison in three huge birthday cakes. (Defenders might say that "Bloody Birthday" anticipated the poisoning of headache powders and other consumer goods, but the glee with which the idea is presented is reprehensible.)
The best-known actors in the cast are Jose Ferrer and Susan Strasberg, who pr obably completed their scenes in a single day. Ferrer plays the town doctor, and Miss Strasberg is the ill-fated teacher. You have to wonder what persuaded them to take these roles. Ferrer and Miss Strasberg can't have made much money, and "Bloody Birthday" is not a film they will want to list on a resume. They only cheapen themselves by participating. Doesn't professional dignity count for anything?
"Bloody Birthday." Horror . Rated R for violence and nudity
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FILM: A TERROR TALE LOOKS AT KIDS GONE VERY BAD
Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA) - July 1, 1986
Author: Carrie Rickey, Inquirer Movie Critic
Splatter-movie directors are either graduates of Animal Guts Tech or of Creepy Music/Razor Sharp Academy. Rest assured that Ed Hunt, writer and director of Bloody Birthday, went to the latter. And he wasn't an honors student.
Its title notwithstanding, Bloody Birthday (1980) is a relatively bloodless experiment in terror, recalling The Bad Seed with a trio of blithely homicidal 10-year-olds who stalk adults to the accompaniment of shrieky, high-pitched violins.
This is California terror, you can tell, because the explanation for their juvenile delinquency is astrological. The kids were born during a lunar eclipse on June 1, 1970. An amateur astrologer they terrorize suggests that ''the eclipse caused something to be missing from their personalities." Something like conscience.
These squeaky-clean brown noses do well in school, ingratiating themselves with teachers and parents. When no one's looking, however, they garotte teenagers with jump-ropes, bludgeon adults with shovels and kill police officers with baseball bats. Who would suspect?
One line for the horror hit parade: The astrologer confides to her beau, ''I'm not going to college. I want to be a reporter."
BLOODY BIRTHDAY *
Produced by Gerald Tolson, directed by Ed Hunt, written by Ed Hunt and Barry Pearson, photography by Stephen Posey, music by Arlon Ober, distributed by Judica Productions.
Running time: 1 hour, 25 mins.
Susan Strasberg - Miss Davis
Jose Ferrer - The Doctor
Parent's guide: MPAA Rating: R (nudity, sex, violence)
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