Bloody Birthday

Plot synopsis:
On June 9, 1970 at the Meadowvale General Hospital, a doctor arrives to attend to three women in labor at the same time. During a solar eclipse, two baby boys and a baby girl are born during that time (off-camera with the total eclipse in view).Ten years later on the night of June 1, 1980, two teenagers named Duke and Ann are kissing in a local cemetery. Duke asks Ann if she wants to play "Ambulance" (a game involving his hand and her leg). Ann is afraid that someone might see them, so they move to kiss inside a hold in the ground. They hear some noise and Duke is suddenly smacked in his face with a shovel by an unseen person. Ann screams when another unseen person throws a jumping rope around her neck and she is choked to death while Duke is hit more with the shovel.Meanwhile, Joyce is eating a sandwich as her little brother Timmy comes through the kitchen window, saying that he was out feeding the dog and that the front door was locked. The next day, Joyce arrives at the Thomas Jefferson Elementary School where Sheriff Brody is talking to Miss Davis' class about murder. He shows the children a handle from a skipping rope and asks if anyone was in the cemetery last night when Ann and Duke were murdered. None of the children say anything and he leaves, saying goodbye to his daughter Debbie. After class, Debbie and her two friends, Curtis and Stephen, ask Miss Davis if everyone can be excused for their birthday party next week. The request is denied.Later, the three children dine one some cookies, and Debbie charges the boys to watch through a hole in the wall. They see Beverly, Debbie's older sister, dance and undress. Another time later, Debbie is skipping rope and calls her father outside. Sheriff Brody narrowly misses stepping on a skateboard (carefully placed there by one of the boys), and Debbie drops her skipping rope (missing a handle). Stephen then suddenly attacks and beats the sheriff with his baseball bat when he bends over. While Stephen and Curtis move the body, Debbie spots Timmy watching and she decides to quickly call for her mother.After the sheriff's funeral, some kids are playing a game in the local junkyard. Curtis tricks Timmy into hiding in a old refrigerator and locks him inside. Timmy manages to escape and returns home where he tells Debbie where he was. He then admits that the other night he was over at Debbie's house (she was not there) to see the Beverly peep-show. Joyce says that she does not want Timmy to play with Curtis anymore.Meanwhile, Debbie puts a picture of Miss Davis in her scrapbook, which also contains an article of her father's murder. That night, Debbie turns off the house security system, and she and Curtis switch his replica gun with the sheriff's real gun. Later at school, Curtis stand behind Miss Davis with the gun and shoots and kills the teacher. Debbie, who is outside, says hello to an approaching Timmy and Joyce. Joyce goes inside the school, where Stephen is hiding in a closet. Curtis runs outside and is decked by Tommy. Joyce then finds Miss Davis' body in a closet.Joyce returns home to find a note from Timmy, telling her he is in the junkyard. She goes looking for him there, and she finds Timmy's tiny flashlight in the refrigerator. Stephen (with a cloth covering his face) hot-wires a car and tries to run Joyce over, with Curtis assisting in operating the pedals. The two murderous boys finally tie down the gearshift, and the car flies by Joyce and goes over a small cliff. A police officer arrives and Joyce tells him what has happened.That night, Joyce is discussing astronomy with Timmy. She says that the solar eclipse that occurred during the births of Debbie, Curtis and Stephen wound have blocked Saturn, the planet which controls the way a person treats other people. Curtis is outside with the gun, but he decides to go across the street where a teenage couple is making out inside a van. The man checks a noise and is shot the head by Curtis. Curtis then enters the van and shoots the woman.A few days later, at the murderous trio's 10th birthday party, Debbie tells Curtis that Joyce might know too much, but he assures her that no one will believe Joyce about the three of them being sociopath killers if she is thought to be crazy. Curtis begins putting more icing on the cakes; Joyce sees him there. When she goes for another cake, she sees Curtis is hiding a bottle of ant poison behind his back. Joyce runs outside and tells everyone that Curtis has poisoned the cake. Curtis' grandfather is upset that Joyce with accuse the innocent little boy of such a transgression, and both he and Curtis try some icing on the cake to show everyone that nothing is wrong. Joyce realizes (too late) that Curtis pretended to poison the take to make herself look like a crazy fool.At home later that evening after the party ends, Joyce tells Timmy that Curtis did not seem to know he was doing anything wrong. She suspects that Curtis, Debbie and Stephen have have been born without guilt for their actions. When Joyce investigates a noise, but it is only her boyfriend Paul who comes out to scare her. The couple hugs.Beverly inadvertently discovers Debbie's scrapbook, titled "Clippings of murder". Beverly shows it to her mother and they both confront Debbie who lies (like the natural born sociopath that she is) by claiming that Curtis left it. Beverly burns the book. Debbie then phones Curtis and Stephen and tells them to come on over. She then readies an arrow with her bow, points it at a hole in the wall and raps the arrow against the wall until Beverly looks through and is gorily shot through her eyeball with the arrow. The boys arrive at the house a little later where after seeing Beverly's dead body, Curtis calmly asks "why didn't you wait for us?" The three murderous children move the body out by the trash.Following Beverly's funeral, Debbie's distraught mother goes to the hospital. When Debbie is playing with Curtis and Stephen at her house, Timmy throws some rocks at the windows (but the "special glass" does not break). The evil trio chase Timmy down, put a garden hose around his neck and cover his mouth. Joyce sees them and Debbie feigns pleading with the two boys to stop hurting Timmy. Curtis then mocks Joyce for the party incident and the warped children leave after releasing Timmy.Joyce is now added to Debbie's scrapbook. Debbie then calls Joyce to tell her that her mother will be coming home from the hospital, and she then asks Joyce and Timmy to babysit. That night, as Timmy sleeps and Joyce listens to her earphones, Debbie lets her twisted pals inside. Curtis rewires the security system while Stephen cuts the phone line. Timmy awakes just in time to see Curtis point his gun at him. Timmy and Joyce run as they dodge Curtis' bullets as well as Stephen's arrows and Debbie's skipping rope. The two siblings cannot open the doors or break the windows, so then run into Debbie's bedroom, where Debbie and Stephen fire arrows through the closed door. Stephen manages to get inside the bedroom, but Timmy and Joyce manage to lock him inside a trunk. Outside the room, Joyce manages to grab the sheriff's gun, but Curtis appears and lets her know that is is only a replica. He pulls the trigger, but the gun only clicks (Curtis is finally out of bullets) and Timmy tackles him down and ties him up with electric cords. Joyce then whacks the security system on and Timmy runs outside for help. Debbie sees her mother arriving by car and tells her that Curtis and Stephen did some very bad things for which she will be blamed. Still believing her innocent-faced daughter, Debbie's mother bundles her in her car and the two drive away.The next day, Curtis and Stephen are handcuffed and taken away by the police. Curtis smiles at Joyce in a very evil manner as he is being hauled into a police car. Joyce and Timmy give their statements to the police and learn that Debbie and her mother are missing and that the police will now be looking for them.In the final scene, Debbie is seen outside a model, messing with a car jack. Her mother comes outside after checking out of their room and makes sure that Debbie knows her new name which is "Beth Simpson". As Debbie and her mother drive away, a man is seen lying dead; crushed underneath a nearby parked truck.

Tags: cult, murder, violence, romantic

Review:
The demonic gang of smiling kids, though somehow possessed by extra-planetary means, bear little resemblance to the droid-ish Children of the Damned, who never thought to use pistols, crossbows and shovels to kill those pesky adults.
Years later, the kids (Billy Jacoby, Elizabeth Hoy and Andy Freeman) turn ten and go on a violent killing spree, offing horny teens, schoolteachers, cops and others.
It's a pretty sick/tasteless combo of THE BAD SEED, VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED and Friday THE 13TH, and kind of jarring to see these calculating kiddies shooting, stabbing and strangling their victims (making some look like accidents), stalking people with guns, spying on people having sex, pretending to put poison in birthday cake, keeping a scrapbook with obituary clippings and doing all kinds of other horrible things!Name-value stars Susan Strasberg as a stern teacher and Jose Ferrer as a doctor receive top billing for bit roles; the real star is Lori Lethin (also in THE PREY and RETURN TO HORROR HIGH) as the astrology obsessed teen who catches on.
One of the most important reasons why one would normally expect laughable situations (like I did), it's because in these kind of movies in which the main villains are children, the young actors tend to be plain awful and they make the whole thing laughable.
Let's see: if children who were born during an eclipse end up being heartless killers, then how come these three were the only ones who actually murdered people?
Three ten-year-old children born at the same time during a solar eclipse begin to slyly murder anybody that offends them.While killer kid movies weren't exactly new at the time of this twisted 80's slasher the theme of children as murderers works nicely for this film.
Veteran star Susan Strasberg does well as the teacher and Jose Ferrer has a cameo appearance.All around this off-beat slasher entry isn't bad, though it's admittedly not flawless, but it is well worth watching for genre fans.*** out of ****.
By the end of the movie I seriously wanted these kids to die in horrible fashion.It's a really solid 80s horror flick, but how these kids are getting away with all this mayhem and murder is just something that you can't not think about.
But our two heroes have just been added to the hit-list..It doesn't have the best acting in the world and the movie print seems more than a bit fuzzy, but overall this is an effective little low-budget horror with effective moments of suspense and even a dash of gore.
The novelty of having children as the villains helps the plot through its slower spots, and the movie makes good use of the weapons the kids have at their disposal, be they rat-poison smeared onto the icing of a cake or arrows shot into the peephole of a sister's bedroom.
This movie is not the scariest of all time, but it is a great example of a campy eighties horror flick -- low budget, no stars, lots of  inventive death scenes, and enough nudity to keep the teenagers in their seats.
80's sleazy slasher movie about three kids born during an eclipse, so they kill everyone they see.
But, that being said, it is not a bad movie and the premise is certainly something different.I enjoyed how frustrating it was for the heroine to know these kids were evil but there was little she could do about it.
Three kids are born during a solar eclipse and turn into vile murderous little tykes who're above suspicion by everyone, save for Joyce (Lori Lethin) and her younger brother Timmy.
Not a great film by any stretch of the imagination, but in the 'killer kids' sub-genre it's a bit of a guilty pleasure.Eye Candy: Julie Brown shows T&A (the only film thus far, to claim that honor); Sylvia Wright gets topless DVD Extras (R1): 16 minute interview with Producer Max Rosenberg (wherein he insults the director AND Canada, great stuff); Biography of Ed Hunt; and trailers for "Kiss of the Taratula", "Don't open the Door", & a red-band one for "Homework" (which features nudity) My Grade: B-.
The only redeeming quality is the fact that kids are doing these awful things, which raises the bar a little.Suspense: 1 -- Okay, I feel bad for anyone who gets scared by this trio of dorky looking kids.Nudity/sex: 7 -- Lots of boobage from three different women, one of whom is the MTV vj Julie Brown.
There are two sex scenes, but little is shown in them.Unintentional humor -- 4 -- There are a few good laughs with the kids trying to act scary, but all in all, it's just bad, not funny bad.Overall -- 4 -- It's not unwatchable.
As long as you can swallow the rather silly premise - that three kids born during an eclipse will grow up "without empathy" due to an astrological anomaly and therefore become vicious, emotionless killers -- you're in for an unsettling ride.When we first meet Curtis, Stephen and Debbie, they're a trio of angelic looking best friends who go everywhere and do everything together -- which makes it all the more shocking when they suddenly and without warning kill off Debbie's father, the town sheriff.
"Bloody Birthday," like many other films of 1981, is a film to be watched with tongue in cheek, and a six pack (or more) of beer.It's a heartwarming story: 3 kids, born during a lunar eclipse, grow up to be young psychopaths, killing family members, friends, etc...It really has no point beyond that.
Three children are born at the exact same time,during a lunar eclipse.Just before their 10th birthday they embark on a killing spree."Bloody Birthday" is a typical slasher from early 80's.It's a pretty average stuff with plenty of nudity.The evil children never generate any menace and there is almost no suspense.There is also no gore or scares in "Bloody Birthday",but the film is mildly entertaining.Unfortunately no real explanation is provided for the kids sudden homicidal mania.The murder scenes are quite gruesome for example we've got death by handgun,baseball bat,skipping rope and shovel.So if you're a fan of early 80's slasher movies give this one a look..
It focuses on three children who were born during an eclipse that blocked Saturn, thereby depriving them of emotions, and so they go around killing people.There are some neat death scenes (and of course some nudity, since no self-respecting '80s slasher flick would dare skip that), but what's really good about the movie is that it shows how manipulative these children are.
The innocence of youth has no place in the warped world of ten-year-old terrors Debbie, Curtis and Steven (Elizabeth Hoy, Billy Jayne and Andy Freeman): as the result of being born during an unusual astronomical alignment, the trio are totally devoid of conscience and much prefer a game of coldblooded murder over conkers or marbles, Debbie putting her skipping rope to good use by throttling her prey, Steven swinging a mean baseball bat, and Curtis using a stolen police revolver to claim his victims.When schoolmate Timmy (K.C. Martel) witnesses the killers at work, he becomes their next target, but is able to turn the tables on his attackers with a little help from older sister Joyce (Lori Lethin).While the basic premise is admittedly a touch far-fetched, Bloody Birthday still proves to be a thoroughly enjoyable piece of nonsense thanks to convincingly chilling performances from its trio of killer kids, and director Ed Hunt's occasionally trashy approach which results in a spot of gratuitous nudity and some surprisingly mean-spirited violence (with Debbie's buxom older sister Beverly, played by Julie Brown, providing the best of both, stripping nekkid while Curtis and Steven spy on her and getting an arrow in the eye for her trouble!).Other highlights include a busty blonde and her boyfriend making out in a van before being blown away by Curtis, Joyce almost getting run over by the murderous mites, and Timmy being trapped in a junkyard refrigerator by Curtis (a marvellously claustrophobic moment that made me feel most uncomfortable)..
The continuity level in this film is also the worst I've ever seen and one good example is when a kid sneaks out of his house and the next day the sheriff is murdered.
'Bloody Birthday' is an odd and, at times, humorous low-budget horror flick along the lines of 'Mikey' or a less intelligent version of 'The Good Son'.Set in a small Californian town, three babies are born at the height of an eclipse, where planetary alignment means they are somehow born without emotions.
There is no explanation for why babies across the world born at the same time aren't equally as twisted but there you go!For a slasher film, it's very tame in terms of violence and gore, which I suppose highlights the problem of casting child characters as the killers as there is only so much you can expose the young actors to.
The main reason why it doesn't descend into being totally ridiculous is because the child actors are very convincing in their roles with the way they slyly play the little innocents in front of undiscerning adults while showing their dark side to the girl who knows the truth.'Bloody Birthday' is rather mediocre as a horror flick, with few scares and little blood, but because it has the shock factor of having kids as the killers, it is a bit unique in that way.
I thought I was going to watch another Friday The 13th or a Halloween rip off, But I was surprised, It's about 3 psycho kids who kill, There's not too many movies like that, I can think of Mikey, Children Of The Corn and a few others, It's not the greatest horror movie but it's a least worth a rent..
Three kids born during a solar eclipse have no consciences and turn into psychotic killers as their 10th birthday approaches.
Having a bunch of kids going round slaughtering people may not be the most ingenious masterstroke ever seen in cinema, but when given the choice between this and another dull Friday the 13th clone - I know what I'd choose.Also helping the film out of the hole that some people would think it's silly plot dug it into is the fact that it's extremely entertaining.
Bloody Birthday revolves around three kids born during a solar eclipse and were born without emotion or like something and 10 years later,they begin to kill family members and friends.
There are some neat and gory death scenes and of course lots of nudity, since no self-respecting 80's slasher flick would dare skip that, but what's really good about the movie is that it shows how manipulative these children are.
They needed to be a little more violent in my opinion, but either way I liked the kills.The child actors in this movie are all great.
She could have been in Playboy like the other Julie Brown.The film also includes José Ferrer, who had three Oscar nominations and a win prior to this; and Joe Penny from Jake and the Fatman.The three child stars really do put on a good show as they commit their sometimes bloody murders.
Joyce (Lori Lethin) and her young brother Timmy (K.C. Martel) find out...and the kids go after them.The premise is pretty silly and the plot about killer children is nowhere near shocking now as it must have been in 1981 but this still works.
First things first, this is an early 1980s slasher movie revolving around a group of siblings (three, to be exact) that go on a murderous rampage in their town, which appears to be stemmed from the fact they were born during a solar eclipse, which blocked out the planet Saturn, thereby making them void of emotion.
I'm sure in 1980, the idea of kids killing kids (and adults) was just that--an idea--but in today's age, where things like this can, and do, happen, I daresay this film hits a little close to home and would probably be met with some controversy were it to be remade today.I enjoyed watching these evil little kids stalk and prey upon unsuspecting adults and peers, and was entertained despite the low budget and often cheesy components of the movie.
It's theme is similar to the Bad Seed and Godsend, in which a child, or in this case three children born during a solar eclipse end up being ruthless murderers.
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?
~Spoiler~ Bloody Birthday is a curious little horror film from the year I was born.
For one thing, the children supposedly have no emotions, yet they show a great level of sadism, they laugh and plan and fear together, they're friends with one another, they sure do love looking at Curtis' sister through the hole in his closet, all implying that they are heavily disturbed but certainly not unemotional.Bloody Birthday is like Mikey (1992), The Paper Boy (1994), Village of the Damned (1995) and The Bad Seed (1956).
This agreeably perverse and oddball early 80's teen body count flick may never reach the astonishingly bent pinnacle of the deeply unsettling and criminally underrated murderous moppets movie "Devil Times Five," but it's still an above average killer kid opus nonetheless.The slim, but serviceable plot centers on a trio of misfit tykes -- two bratty boys and one creepily twinkle-eyed, albeit angelic-looking little girl -- who are all born during a solar eclipse on June 9th, 1970.
Writer/director Ed Hunt, the usually incompetent unsung hack responsible for such wonderfully wretched clunkers as the delightfully dopey "Starship Invasions," the uproariously inane Jesus Christ vigilante parable (!) "Alien Warrior," and the stunningly silly "The Brain," does a pretty solid and capable job here: the kill scenes are abundant and reasonably brutal (the arrow-through-the-eye gag is especially nasty), there's a sizable smattering of gratuitous nudity and soft-core sex, a goodly amount of tension is neatly created and maintained, some nice dollops of dark humor punctuate the arrestingly warped mayhem, and the surprise grim ending manages to be truly jolting.Moreover, the top-drawer cast further elevates the proceedings to the perfectly watchable and absorbing: Jose Ferror as a small-town doctor, future "Jake and the Fatman" TV series star Joe Penny as an amateur astrologer, "The Prey" 's Lori Lethin as the plucky babysitter heroine, Susan Strasberg as a bitchy school teacher, "American Ninja" 's Michael Dudikoff as a chowderhead jock, and Cyril O'Reilly (the lonely misanthrope vampire in the hauntingly melancholy "Dance of the Damned") as a libidinous teen dude who gets bagged while doing just what you think with some naked hot chick in back of a parked van.
The 3 bad kids do a good job especially Curtis (Billy Jayne is also the only one getting a real film career after this) the kid with glasses who seems pretty eager to go for killings and doesn't fear to act out on his own without help from the other 2.
No, what happens in this movie is that sometimes the kids kill someone outright, while sometimes they try and make it look like an accident.
"Bloody Birthday" is a horror film from the 80's that is tremendous fun.
Bloody Birthday may be an unlikely tale but it's well told and probably the first of it's kind, It's about 3 children (Elizabeth Hoy, Billy Jacoby and Andy Freeman) from the same town, born at the same time under a luner eclipse and somehow they were born with no conscience and turn out to be psychotic, then it flash forwards to 10 years later and these kids are planning a black celebration that will take the town's population down a notch or two.
Enter Joyce Russel (Lori Lethin), a teenager obsessed with astrology and her ten year old brother Timmy (K.C. Martel) who soon becomes aware of the evil kids going ons and attempt to stop them before its too late.Let's face it little kids are terrifying, seriously just raising one can be hell, so just imagine your child had no sense of right or wrong and end up planning to murder people or worse yet you.It's a shame that this movie is more or less forgotten because it's a really good fun popcorn movie, OK maybe it's not the first child killer movie (The Bad Seed and Children Of The Damned) has that honour but it's probably the first child killer slasher movie and (The Children and Children Of The Corn) kind of followed in this movie's footsteps.
In the tensest scene, the trio of killers lock Timmy in an abandoned freezer.Bloody Birthday also has some high calibre nudity thanks to the beautiful MTV star, (Just Say) Julie Brown, twisted murders and, believe it or not, good actors.
The three kids are the proper stars of this movie though, they each play they're parts well chillingly reflect the hearts of malicious killers which is disturbing.All in all "Bloody Birthday" is a fun movie to watch, maybe a little boring at times but definitely highly recommend..
BLOODY BIRTHDAY is a pretty decent entry in the 'killer kids' genre of filmmaking that has existed ever since THE BAD SEED came out in the 1950s.
This one has a trio of kids born during an eclipse, which of course means that they turn out to be murderous little brats who kill off anyone they can get their hands on.
And that day is less then a week away!Nowhere as gory as most slasher films released in the 1970's and 1980's "Bloody Birthday" is far more disturbing in that the killers in it Debbi Curtis & Steven are barley out of their diapers when they commit their horrific crimes!