The controversial 1979 Spanish horror, which celebrates its 50th anniversary, sees a British couple beseiged by maniacal children
Who Can Kill a Child? is considered a cult classic and appeared at number 86 in Slant Magazine’s list of “The 100 Best Horror Movies of All Time”.
The Big Scream: European Slaycation in Bristol will be hosting the UK premiere of the new 4K restoration from Radiance Films on 24 October
“Comes from a different era in filmmaking, when horror movies could spit in the eye of the status quo…” – Slant Magazine.
From 22-24 October, Forbidden Worlds Film Festival: The Big Scream returns to the biggest screen in the city, the Bristol Megascreen, to celebrate some of the most lurid, blood-soaked, sexually-charged and visually enticing cult horrors ever made in Europe
Included in the line-up is controversial cult Spanish horror, Who Can Kill A Child? (aka Island of the Damned), which was directed by Narciso Ibáñez Serrador (El televisor, The House That Screamed), the legendary master of horror who has been dubbed the ‘Spanish Hitchcock’.
Who Can Kill A Child? is his undisputed masterpiece, an extreme and unbearably tense work that remains deeply shocking in its disregard for societal taboos.
Taking its time building a mood of palpable dread, Serrador wrings the menace out of every social encounter faced by British couple, Tom (Lewis Fiander) and Evelyn (Prunella Ransome) as they travel out to a remote Spanish island village, which seems to be populated solely by sullen and unnerving children.
As the couple begin to find evidence of foul play and the children start to gather together, Tom and Evelyn are forced to contemplate the unthinkable, and struggle with the notion that they may have to kill or be killed.
50 years after it was released, Who Can Kill A Child?’s reputation has continued to grow among genre aficionados and is now considered, not just as a landmark work of Euro-horror, but as one of the greatest horror films ever made.
On 24 October, Forbidden Worlds Film Festival will be hosting the UK premiere of the new 4K restoration, courtesy of Radiance Films, days after its world premiere at the Sitges Film Festival.
