To myself. So, yes. It is my birthday this week, and in honor of such a great occasion I'm going to take the next two or three weeks to review birthday themed horror movies! Because the classic slasher Happy Birthday to Me is a little more well known I decided to save that one for a later time (probably next week) and instead review the more obscure birthday slasher: Bloody Birthday.
Bloody Birthday first intrigued me because of the wonderful DVD cover art. I only stumbled upon this movie while I was doing some research on Happy Birthday to Me. Well, this image popped up during my research and I was instantly drawn in. One of the best elements of classic 80s horror is the use of fun and clever artwork on the movie posters and movie cases. It gives a very tongue in cheek Tales From the Crypt vibe to all the movies form the time, especially the slasher movies. With this movie we get this great image of a classic birthday cake, but with human fingers for candles. It is just too cool. So, I ordered a copy of it right away for my birthday.
The story-line is simple and even a little cliche--but this is 80s slasher goodness, so we're not asking for award winning writing here. Three kids are born during a solar eclipse. This eclipse basically makes them some new breed of devil children. The explanation is that their horoscope is missing the basic element of human emotion that makes them empathize or feel sympathy for others; therefore, we get psychopathic children. It's a simple explanation, but it suffices the situation.
The movie doesn't wait around at all to get to the violence or slashing. Right after the birth scene we jump forward ten years to a graveyard. In this graveyard is a couple secretly having sex . . . in an open grave. So basically they're asking for it. They get murdered and then buried right there. Very quickly we, as the audience, find out that these three little bratty kids are the murderers. No one suspects them since, after all, they are just children. But, since we know that they are murderers we are left with this dramatic irony as well as the irritation at how bratty the kids are. Specifically I found the kid with the glasses, named Curtis, to be the most irritating of the crew. He reminded me of that smug smart kid in class who always thought he was better than everyone else. Give that kid a homicidal streak and you have Curtis. The other two murderous kids are a boy and a girl. Even though Curtis thinks he is the ring leader we can all tell that the little girl is actually running the show.
the movie itself was enjoyable. I really like seeing these films from the late seventies and early eighties. For some reason it makes me nostalgic for a time when things were simple. You couldn't just whip out your cellphone and call for help when you were being chased by a murderer, the limited technology made it so filmmakers had to be creative and not just rely on CGI, and life just seemed less bogged down with information. Now, I'm probably just rambling on, but this movie felt like a wholesome after school special that just crossed paths into the wrong genre. It makes the kids seem all the more menacing and hateful.
Now, like I said before, the story isn't fantastic. This movie misses some of my favorite elements of the slasher genre. For one, my favorite type of slasher is one where the teenagers or victims are trapped somewhere, they're isolated. (Stuck in a house, out at camp, in the middle of rural Texas, etc.) This is one reason teenagers and young adults relate to these types of movies. The parents and adults aren't around and it is up to the kids to save the day (even if 90 percent of them get killed in the process). Bloody Birthday doesn't have the feeling of isolation, but it tries to make up for it by the main character being emotionally and theoretically isolated. When she finds out these kids are the murderers no one will believe her. They're just kids after all. It was a creative idea but I still prefer the feeling of being trapped or alone. (The end of the movie tries to make up for this by trapping the final girl in the house, but it just isn't the same.)
Also, in places it seems like were are just looking for lousy excuses to kill people, but I suppose that is the mentality of a child. For a slasher movie the kills seem pretty tame. The movie has minimal blood, which is funny considering the DVD case brags about how "disturbing" and "gratuitous" the movie is. It isn't as exploitative as they make it out to be. I suppose the fact that it is children committing the crimes makes it disturbing. But overall this movie is rather tame.
Summing it Up
Deaths: 7
Language: 1
Gore Factor: 3
Sex Factor: 4
Scare Factor: 1
Fun Factor: 4
Overall Rating: 3