Entry Three: Bloody Birthday (1981)

Bloody Birthday (1981)

Dir: Ed Hunt

"The nightmare begins with the kids next door."

This is a fun, twisted entry in the "evil kid" subgenre.  During a lunar eclipse, three women go into labor unexpectedly.  Nearly ten years later, we're introduced to their progeny Debbie (Elizabeth Hoy, The Blues Brothers-"How much for the little girl?!"), Curtis (Billy Jaye, TV's Parker Lewis Can't Lose) and Steven (Andy Freeman, Cujo) as they're charging admission to peep on Debbie's comely teenage sister, Beverly (Julie Brown, Earth Girls are Easy and the voice of Zatanna on Batman: the Animated Series) and strangling two teenagers fucking in a graveyard with a jump rope.  Turns out the lunar eclipse fucked with the zodiac, causing these kids to be born without consciences.  When Debbie's Sheriff father investigates the graveyard slayings, they beat him to death with baseball bats.  A bitchy teacher gets blown away with a revolver and the suspicious Beverly gets an arrow through the eye.  Only neighbor kid Timmy (K.C. Martel, E.T.) and his teenage sister, Joyce (Lori Lethen, The Day After) know the truth about this terrible trio, and they must survive a siege by these pint-sized psychos in Debbie's bullet-proof home.  The resourceful Timmy and Joyce survive and manage to get Curtis and Andy dragged away to the mental ward, but Debbie escapes with her overprotective mother, killing a trucker on the way out of town just for the fuck of it.

This is one of my favorite entries in it's subgenre; the kids are all good and Ed Hunt's documentary-like direction and Stephen Posey's bright, cheerful cinematography help underscore the horrific action.  Billy and Joyce are genuinely likeable heroes.  The gore is minimal, but there's a solid smattering of T&A.  "Guest star" Jose Ferrer appears in two brief scenes as a Doctor.  Recommended!