Misfit Horror 

A film series dedicated to one-of-a-kind horror movies whose originality and power have been unjustly neglected because they aren’t at all what you expected.

January 19th – Who Can Kill a Child? One of the most disturbing horror films from a decade that was conspicuously filled with them, Who Can Kill a Child? takes The Birds (1963) and replaces Alfred Hitchcock’s bloodthirsty birds with an island full of homicidal children. Directed by Narciso Ibáñez Serrador (whose other horror film of note is the wonderfully sordid and atmospheric The House That Screamed from 1969), this Spanish production opens with a documentary montage of atrocity footage from around the world (the Holocaust, the Korean War, the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, etc.) to polemically motivate the reasons why the children of the small island of Almanzora have collectively murdered the adult population there. Arriving in Almanzora on holiday, the baby-expecting couple of Tom (Lewis Fiander) and Evelyn (Prunella Ransome) discover that the island appears to be deserted. Shops are untended, no bellboys are waiting in the foyers of the island’s hotels, restaurants are totally devoid of patrons or servers. The benign suspicion that the inhabitants are all on siesta, however, soon shifts to doubts and fears about the children who start to appear everywhere. Though not a gory film, Who Can Kill a Child? remains a supremely unsettling film that will linger with you for a long time, like it or lump it. Not to be missed!

Sunday nights at 7PM in 150 Stevenson. Sponsored (or at least turned a blind eye) by the Literature Department, and produced by the usual gang of aficionados. More informative flyers to follow weekly.

For more information, please visit: ihr.ucsc.edu