Director: Narciso Ibáñez Serrador
Screenplay: Narciso Ibáñez Serrador
Based on a Novel by: Juan José Plans
Starring: Lewis Fiander, Prunella Ransome, Antonio Iranzo, Marisa Porcel, Luis Ciges, Miguel Narros
Country: Spain
Running Time: 111 min
Year: 1976
I received a surprise delivery the other day of a couple of Blu-rays from Fokus Media, a Swiss label. I’d contacted them a couple of months ago after I saw they’d started to release films from PM Entertainment, asking whether I could review any of those discs. They kindly said they’d look into it and this recent arrival must have been the result of that. Indeed, one of the two discs was a PM feature (more on that in a forthcoming review), but the other was the Spanish horror classic Who Can Kill a Child? (a.k.a. Island of Death or ¿Quién puede matar a un niño? or Trapped! or, in the case of this particular release, Scream – Ein Kind zu töten). Having thoroughly enjoyed writer-director Narciso Ibáñez Serrador’s only other feature film The House That Screamed (he worked largely in television, where he made a huge splash in Spain), I was excited to check it out, and I’m going to share my thoughts here.
Who Can Kill a Child? tells the tale of an English couple, Tom (Lewis Fiander) and Evelyn (Prunella Ransome), who embark on a pre-natal vacation to a seemingly idyllic Spanish island. Upon their arrival, they discover a disturbing absence of adults, and the island’s children behave with an eerie and unsettling demeanour. As the couple explore the island more thoroughly, they gradually realize that the children have engaged in a violent uprising, systematically murdering the adult population. The couple must then fight for survival, whilst facing the titular moral dilemma.
Wow. This is a real gut-punch of a film. The concept could easily have resulted in a very silly bit of schlock-horror but Serrador exercises restraint throughout, resulting in a truly unsettling experience. The kids, on the surface, look like normal children. They smile, they laugh, they play around. But what they’re playing and what they’re laughing at is anything but normal. Towards the end there are a couple of more graphic moments of violence but, prior to this, most of the deaths occur off-screen. Doing this sparsely and after such a long build-up gives those sequences immense power. The final act has some truly disturbing moments.
Dialogue from the children is also, thankfully, kept to a minimum, only used when necessary. The very end of the film has a dialogue exchange between the kids that is a little clunky though. It would have been better keeping that sequence silent, in my opinion.
Another element I wasn’t 100% sold on was the opening sequence. This unusual prologue describes how children have long been defenceless victims of adults’ horrific acts, shown through shocking archival footage. This sequence (which reportedly was originally going to play out at the end of the film) wasn’t on the first export versions. As disturbing as the imagery is, the sequence doesn’t match the rest of the film at all from a stylistic point of view, so it doesn’t settle very well.
Due to it being right at the start of the film, it’s easy to forget about the prologue though and I can forgive any other minor missteps, as the film on a whole is incredibly effective. It’s a slow burn, to begin with, gradually building a sense of unease. You only get hints of something being wrong on the island. It’s not until 50 minutes in that you start to actually see what the children are up to. The final act, however, is shockingly brutal, as mentioned.
Another thing that sets Who Can Kill a Child? apart from a lot of horror movies is that it’s largely set in broad daylight in the sweltering Spanish heat. There’s nowhere to hide from this unexpected menace and little chance of escape.
Sound is also put to good use in the film, to build atmosphere. The intense barrage of firework explosions early on, for instance, hint at the violence to come and the squeak of a rotisserie turning cranks up the tension whilst the couple try to figure out why the island appears to be empty.
All in all, Who Can Kill a Child? is a devastatingly effective chiller. Controlled filmmaking and shocking subject matter make for a title that deserves to be more widely discussed in conversations about the best horror movies of the 70s.
Film: 
Who Can Kill a Child? (labelled Scream: Ein Kind zu töten…) is out now in a dual format Blu-Ray & DVD mediabook (region B/2), released by Fokus Media (you can order it here or you might be able to find it on various import sites). It looks great, with a crisp but natural-looking picture and rich colours. There’s very light dirt/damage in one or two places but largely it’s clean. I’ve used screengrabs throughout this review to give you an idea of how it looks, though these have been compressed.
You get a choice of either German, Spanish or English language audio options (all 2.0 stereo). I opted for English and it sounds decent for the most part, though there seemed to be a slightly tinny echo in the dialogue in a couple of places. This might be as originally presented though. Also, it must be noted that there’s only an option for full English subtitles for both the English and Spanish dialogue spoken in the film. So, if you’re watching with the English language audio you have to either make do with not having the Spanish dialogue (of which there’s a fair amount) translated or having everything, including the English, subtitled.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
– Multi-page booklet
– Audio commentary: Kat Ellinger and Samm Deighan
– Two filmmaker interviews (in Spanish with no English subtitles)
– Kim Newman interview
– 100 Years of Horror: ‘Who Could Kill a Child?’ featurette
– Various trailers
– Image galleries
– Spanish TV special (no English subtitles)
– Radio spot
– Soundtrack as a hidden feature on the BD
– DVD version
Most of these extras have appeared on the Mondo Macabro release of the film. I’m guessing the transfer might be the same too, if Fokus Media have ported the disc over. It is, however, missing the alternate ‘Island of Death’ opening sequence from that disc.
Unfortunately, a couple of the interviews and a lengthy TV special included on this Fokus Media disc are in Spanish with only German subtitles. The rest of the extras are English language friendly though.
Kat Ellinger and Samm Deighan provide a commentary. They analyse the film and discuss its background and themes. They’re extremely knowledgeable on the subjects and their track is fascinating and engrossing.
Kim Newman is interviewed too, talking about children as antagonists in horror films and literature. It’s a fun piece.
The 100 Years of Horror piece is led by a strangely narrated voiceover. This, and some jokey comments give the piece an irreverent feel. It’s not particularly insightful, unfortunately, so it isn’t a must-watch extra.
The soundtrack is a nice bonus. This is played through the Blu-ray itself rather than being included on its own CD, but those with the right kit and software can always rip it off the disc and listen to it as an audio file or burn it to CD. It’s a good soundtrack, with several creepy kid singing cues and eerie tension builders.
So, it’s a decent release of an excellent film. Those who speak Spanish or read German will get a little more out of it but there’s still plenty of content for us monolingual plebs.
Disc/package: 