30) Bloody Birthday (1981)

"It's like Curtis doesn't know the things he's doing are wrong - like he doesn't care!"

Director
Ed Hunt

Cast
Jose Ferrer - Doctor
Elizabeth Hoy - Debbie Brody
Billy Jacoby - Curtis Taylor
Andrew Freeman - Steven Seton
Melinda Cordell - Mrs. Brody
Bert Kramer - Sheriff James Brody

For the 30th post on this blog, I picked a movie released the same year I was born because...why not.
I also recently bought a year subscription to Shudder - an on-demand service featuring nothing but horror, thriller, and supernatural titles. It's a horror movie fan's theme park.
Bloody Birthday is a movie I previously heard about, and wanted to watch for a long time. I found it streaming on Shudder and just needed to watch it. I'm glad I did.
When it comes to storytelling, I'm a believer that the storyteller (regardless of medium - writing, film making, whatever) shouldn't shy away from including important elements if they're needed for the story line despite what current sensitivities might be.
This movie did just that, telling a story despite the possibility that some cages might be rattled. This movie is a dark, serious one as it centers around murderous children who have no qualms about their misdeeds.
The movie begins as a doctor arrives at Meadowvale General Hospital somewhere in California. He meets a nurse outside who's watching for a solar eclipse that's supposed to take place.
As the eclipse commences in a time lapse fashion, the sounds of three children - two boys and a girl - being delivered by three different moms is heard over the shot.
The movie cuts to 10 years later, where a young couple is making out in a cemetery at night. They make their way into an open grave as the girl is worried someone will see them. As they start back where they left off, the guy is smashed in the face with a shovel and knocked out cold. The girl is then strangled by someone unseen.
These murders create a big controversy in the community, as murders often do.
Sheriff James Brody (Bert Kramer) visits the local elementary school to ask students if they recognize the wood handle of a skipping rope, which turns out to be the weapon used to strangle the girl at the cemetery.
Things really get dark as one of the girls in the class, Debbie Brody (Elizabeth Hoy), is not only the Sheriff's young daughter, she's also one of the three child killers. After her father's visit to her classroom that led to no results, she and the two other children - Steven Seton (Andrew Freeman) and Curtis Taylor (Billy Jacoby), who acts like the ring leader - set a death trap for her father at his house. This takes place, by the way, as the kids are planning their collective 10th birthday party.

Anyhow, after school, the kids plot to kill the sheriff (Debbie's dad) by placing a skateboard on the front step to make his death appear as an accident.
Debbie calls her dad out of the house under the auspices of showing him something. When he comes out, he steps over the skateboard foiling their plane.
In a scene that really made me cringe, she proudly shows her sheriff dad a jump rope with a missing wooden handle - the one found at the murder scene.
With a smirk on her face, one of the other kids sneaks up behind him with a baseball bat and bashes him in the back of the head.
"Mommy! Daddy fell!" she shouts.
The murders continue with both fun and revenge working as motives. Otherwise, there really are no motives established. I was confused at first, until I remembered the solar eclipse at the beginning.
Each of the three children act so differently from each other. Debbie seems driven by spite, acting vengeful while she murders even her own sister. Steven seems more dead inside, acting on the suggestions of the other two children with no clear motive aside from that. And Curtis seems to murder for the thrill of it with absolutely no real concern about the consequences. He's filled with pride and certainty about what he's doing.
This movie is good but for reasons it shouldn't be. The suspense continues building up right unto the very end. Billy Jacoby is especially good playing a child the audience can't help but despise thanks to his smug nature.
The whole supernatural element (I'm guessing) behind the murderous nature of these three kids, stemming from the solar eclipse at the start of the film, was the movie's low point.
Had the kids decided to go on their rampage for the sake of curiosity - what it's like to kill - or thrills, or even rage would have been much more alarming than a cliche' solar eclipse.

The emotional trauma expressed in the film is well played. The deaths are one thing, but to show just how it's effecting the families and community members makes the story both believable and emotional. Normally in horror movies, deaths are treated as something to be expected. Bloody Birthday makes reactions an integral part of the storyline to enhance the seriousness of what these kids are doing, and how brazen they are when doing it. It's well done.
To me, this seems like a movie that would have a hard time being filmed in today, especially with the number of unfortunate mass deaths taking place at the hands of young people in schools and public places. In a couple scenes, Curtis roams the town with a hand gun, pointing it at unsuspecting people but he's unable to carry out his plans to kill as he narrowly escapes getting caught.
Bloody Birthday is a suspenseful, very dark, and alarming film. I recommend it but with a caution.