Review #150: 'Who Can Kill a Child?' (1976)

Produced the year before the publication of Stephen King's short story Children of the Corn (which was subsequently made into a film in 1983), Who Can Kill a Child? is very similar in it's main idea. An English couple, Tom (Lewis Fiander), and his pregnant wife Evelyn (Prunella Ransome), arrive on a small island off of the mainland of Spain as tourists. On entering the small village, they find the place to be deserted. After some time searching for locals, they discover that the children have turned on the adult population, systematically killing all of them.

During the opening credits of the film, a narrator describes - with the aid of documentary imagery - the many atrocities on humanity of the 20th century; from the concentration camps of world war 2, to the napalm bombing of Vietnam. In all of these, we are confronted with the very reality of the situations and the concept that within all of these inhumane acts, that children are the most innocent of victims.

In a previous review (#106) for Devil Times Five (1975), I mentioned the 1970's trope for evil children. This is self evident within this narrative. As this concept was outlined within the context of American social change, I feel a slightly colloquial reading is needed for this Spanish film. In the 1960's and '70's, British tourism went further than it's usual boundaries of the UK. The gateways of Spain were flooded with these pale-skinned holiday-makers. Also, the children of this island are the last of Spanish dictator Franco's children. Franco died in 1975, meaning there was at last freedom, and Spaniards could move on from the devastation of the civil war. These children could represent the anger left by the atrocities of this period. They may well represent a new Spain which needs to move on; or the kids could be the remnants of Franco's ideas. But fundamentally, these kids want to destroy the adults that for years let themselves be dictated by a murdering president.

The children of the film perpetuate (for me at least), the concept that they are intrinsically evil. Kids are fucking monsters! The island children form a kind of collective psychic-psychosis, which can be projected onto other children; something that Evelyn finds out the hard way, as her unborn child kills her inside the womb after it has been possessed. After the island is rid of all adults, it would be time to move this psychic possession of children to the mainland. This is haunting stuff. The film is atmospheric, and has more tension than the film of Children of the Corn (1984). It's a surprise that this film was forgotten. Chilling, disturbing: It also raises a fundamental question of morality: Who can kill a child? (as illustrated in the title used here - it is one of many other titles such as Island of Death, Death is Child's Play et al). Well, going back to the Brit-tourist invasion, it seems that an Englishman is the only kind that is capable of such a horrific act. Watch out Spain, the Brits are invading!


Directed by: Narciso Ibáñez Serrador
Starring: Lewis Fiander, Prunella Ransome
Country: Spain

Rating: ***

Marc Ivamy