Many have already commented and it seems that people either love it or hate it, well, my own opinion lands somewhere in between so here goes
"Who Can Kill a Child" is certainly worth a look. It's undeniably original and draws inspiration from a number of fine films, Lord of the Flies (1963 version) obviously, but also The Birds, Don't Look Now and possibly The House With The Laughing Windows. Just like in his first feature ("The House That Screamed") director Ibáñez-Serrador got sort of an oppression/revolution theme going. This time children suddenly fight back for all injustice that they have been made to suffer through the ages. The theme is treated without any subtlety, in the first eight minutes of the film we get brief but a run-down of cruelty children has suffered through time. This comes as a newsreel with real life footage from concentration camps, wars and famines. It's hard stuff to watch and the clumsy handling of the material makes it come across rather dubious. It smells of sensationalism and exploitation. However after that we get a fairly well handled thriller where a tourist couple arrives to a Spanish island only to find out that the children have taken over and killed off all the adults. The general atmosphere of the film is quite unnerving and the cinematography captures a certain dreamlike, or indeed nightmare-ish, quality. Sadly the editing leaves something to be desired which renders some of the dramatic set ups and pay offs a rather clumsy hue. Also many of the changes in pace works really badly and thus in parts the film seems slower than it really is. The ending comes as no real surprise but somewhat hard to interpret. Actually the substantial change in tone in the very final scene makes little or no sense vis-à-vis the dramatic construction of the story and the set up for the audience's sympathy. All in all "Who Can Kill a Child" stands as a memorable film, with a few too many questions left unanswered and possibly a tad pretentious.
Review of Who Can Kill a Child?
