WHO CAN KILL A CHILD? SPECIAL ON 101 HORRORS
Narciso Ibáñez Serrador’s taboo-smashing classic, Who Can Kill a Child (1976), is a movie that packs a lethal punch both in terms of onscreen mayhem and intellectual philosophizing.
When a couple of English tourists (Lewis Fiander, Prunella Ransome) arrive on an isolated Spanish island, they begin to discover the mutilated corpses of adults and eventually realize the shocking truth: These innocent-looking youngsters have massacred their elders, exploiting the grownups’ reluctance to defend themselves against the children.
Serrador, like his terrifying La Residencia (aka The House that Screamed) from 1969, mines a rich vein of audience manipulation by making his antagonists the “untouchable” fresh-faced youth, while the film (loosely based on Juan Jose Plans’ novel, El juego de los niños) also pays homage to such obvious influences as Village of the Damned, Night of the Living Dead, and Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, with the island village’s tykes standing in for the avian threats.
With sparse dialogue, oft-blinding outdoor daylight settings courtesy of Goya-award winning cinematographer José Luis Alcaine, dread-filled atmosphere, and its downbeat/upbeat ending, Who Can Kill A Child is an unusual, provocative and extremely well made picture that provides a welcome change of pace from well-worn genre conventions.
Join AC and his fabulous panel of guests (Ashley Lamers, John McDevitt, Mackenzie Parker, Elena Romea) as we celebrate a half-century of this groundbreaking masterpiece of Spanish horror from one of the true masters of the genre, delivering biting social commentary on gender roles, political inequity, and tyranny against one’s fellow humans while elegantly delivering a sinister and spellbinding thriller that will stick with you for days!
ASHLEY LAMERS is a professional counselor, animal advocate, coffee enthusiast, straight edge vegan feminist, and horror lover with a “do no harm, take no shit” sensibility. She has two cats, a business, and many opinions.
JOHN MCDEVITT is a lifelong cinephile who programs two recurring film events in Chicago: SUPER-HORROR-RAMA! and Fetish Film Forum, a monthly screening series about fetish, kink, leather, and BDSM at the Leather Archives & Museum. John is fascinated by all genres of cinema and appreciates horror most of all for its willingness to explore what makes us uncomfortable and for the compassion it often extends to its characters and the viewer.
MACKENZIE PARKER is a filmmaker living in Los Angeles. He studied at Northern Illinois University and the Moscow Art Theater. He has worked on TV shows such as Sons of Anarchy and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and is currently working as a staff editor for Digital Alliance.
ELENA ROMEA is the creator behind SpanishFear.com and Horror Rises from Spain. A researcher in literature and cinema, she holds a Ph.D. in Spanish Studies with a dissertation about the filmmaker José Val del Omar. Her work explores themes of estrangement, horror, myth, and cultural conflict.
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