A Spanish horror thriller classic and surely one of the greatest, if not The Greatest, of The Evil Children genre. Kids on film are scary,
and films like "The Bad Seed" (1956), "Village of the Damned" (1960), "Orphan" (2009) and "Ich Seh Ich Seh" (Goodnight Mommy, 2015)
is a proof of that, and let's not forget Linda Blair in "The Exorcist". Everyone's favourite Uruguyan Spaniard Narciso Ibañez Serrador
only made two feature films in the horror genre, this film and the 1969 "La Residencia" (read more about this film on my Horror Films
Page one) and both are genre classics. Serrador cleverly uses the plot of Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 "The Birds" and replaces the birds
with children instead in an apocalyptic tale set in Spain on a fictive (?) Catalan island, and masterfully shot in brilliant sunlight by
cinematographer José Luis Alcaine. The acting from the 2 unknown TV actors Fiander and Ransome could've been better though.

I remember seeing this film on an old blurry Swedish rental VHS sometime in the 1980's, and then on the US Dark Sky DVD edition in
2007 and now on the Spanish bluray, and every time i've been impressed with the atmosphere of the cinematography and with the
increased suspense all through the film. Apocalyptic horror with a virus or plague affecting children on a remote island telling them to
murder all adults. Maybe to revenge all the Evil that grown-ups has unleashed upon children with all our wars. Beware: This film starts
with a very hard to watch documentary footage intro for 7-8 minutes with clips from WW2 concentration camps and from the war crimes
commited in i.a. Vietnam. The film was shot in Cataluña, in Sitges and on Menorca.

US 2007 Dark Sky DVD edition

A British couple, pregnant Evelyn (Prunella Jane Ransome) and Tom (Lewis Fiander) arrives to the tourist resort Benavis south of
Tarragona in Catalonia, Spain. The place is crowded with tourists and Tom wants to take Evelyn to an island he visited many years
before, to the genuine and picturesque island of Almanzora. Well off the beaten path they have to hire a small fishing boat and go
by themselves out to the island (the fictitious island).
On arrival they can't find any adults though, only a lot of children, a horde of children staring at them in a decidedly unfriendly way.
Tom tries to keep the spirits up with "they probably have a siesta" not to worry his pregnant wife, but the strange atmosphere they
have encountered gets downright horrifying when they see a young girl beat an old man to death on the street.
Their vacation turns into a nightmare and a fight to survive, and with a great ending.

Narciso Ibañez Serrador made these two classics of the genre and then went to TV, and in 2006 he made a crappy anti-abortion
horror TV movie "La Culpa" in the series "Películas para no dormir" that was released in Sweden in 2007 on DVD. Better avoid it.
Narciso Ibañez Serrador was born in Uruguay in 1925 and died in 2019.

The Spanish Divisa Home Video Bluray presents the film in a 1.85:1 widescreen ratio and with an english or spanish audio DTS-HD
MA mono or 5.1, region ALL and with Trailer, Galeria and Filmografia as extras.
NOTE !! There is english audio BUT when the spanish people in the film talk - they talk in spanish without any english subtitles
or spanish subtitles (only spanish subtitles when Tom and Evelyn speak english between themselves, for the major part, but .... )

..........................................................................................................

The old 2007 US Dark Sky DVD had a 1.85:1 widescreen ratio, english or spanish audio mono with english subtitles, as extras two
featurettes, "Who can Shoot a Child" - interview with cinematographer José Luis Alcaine (16 minutes, 2007) and "Child Director"
interview with director Serrador (9 minutes) and a picture gallery