Episode 117: The Children

The Undead Symphony

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The Children (also known as The Children of Ravensback) is a 1980 American horror film, directed by Max Kalmanowicz, and starring Martin Shakar from Saturday night fever, and the chuck Norris action movie, like he does anything else, Invasion USA, leave it to beaver’s Gil Rogers, and the multitalented grammy award winning singer songwriter and author, Gale Garnett.
It follows a group of five children in a small New England town when they are transformed into zombies who, after being exposed to waste from a nuclear plant, microwave any living thing they touch. The film received generally negative reviews from critics.
Upon its theatrical release in 1980 The Children received generally negative reviews. The Los Angeles Times called it a "despicable movie" that "reeks of a nasty, ill-defined dislike of humankind."[4] The Orlando Sentinel deemed the actors "the ugliest bunch of folks we've seen assembled on any screen at any one time."[5] The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette criticized the writing, directing, acting and special effects; the latter slammed for burned bodies looking "exactly like a leftover pepperoni pizza, complete with black olives and anchovies.”
Jesus what would they think Passion of the Christ or Terrifier 2?
Personally this lands slap bang in the middle of a batch of movies from the late 1970s and early 1980s. Not as good as Dawn 78, or Nightmare City, or Dead and Buried, better than Creeping Flesh, Flesh Eaters and Zombie Lake and probably on par with Shock Waves. A definitely 5/10 for me.