Despite making a decision as a teenager to never have my own children, I just can't stay away from evil kid movies. From The Bad Seed to The Omen and right on down to more obscure entries like Who Can Kill a Child?, I just get some odd delight from seeing tykes killing off the adult population while smiling with glee. It's this childish exuberance that makes Bloody Birthday more entertaining than expected and, even though all I could really remember about this from when I saw it as a youngster was a scene involving a refrigerator and a peep show moment where we got to see comedian Julie Brown (of Earth Girls Are Easy and the novelty song "Homecoming Queen's Got a Gun" fame) quite naked, there's a lot of amusing moments and some okay deaths on the way to a weak finish and groaner of a set-up for a sequel.

In 1970 there's a solar eclipse going on and it's during this that three babies are born around the same time at a local hospital. Fast forward to ten years later and, after a decent opening murder of a lustful couple that has a shovel to the head and strangulation, we meet Curtis (Billy Jayne), Debbie (Elizabeth Hoy), and Steven (Andy Freeman) who were all affected by the eclipse making them emotionless and just a little psychotic. They're also the best of friends and soon team-up to start eliminating all the adults in the neighbourhood using such items as a baseball bat, bow and arrow, and the gun they stole from the Sheriff. However, their seeming innocence comes under question when playmate Timmy (K.C. Martel) and his teenage sister Joyce (Lori Lethin) get suspicious of them. In order to get them off their back Curtis convinces ever that she poisoned the cake at their birthday party and our murderous trio continues their reign of terror but Joyce (who is handily into astrology) has figured it all out and sets out to stop them.

With plotting that is slender at best, Bloody Birthday gets a lot of mileage out of its younger stars. Jayne pretty much steals the show every chance he gets with his constantly smirking and knowing smiles (he'd go on to also upstage co-stars in things like Just One of the Guys and Dr. Alien) and Hoy is certainly creepy looking enough to fit the evil mold. Lethin makes for an okay heroine even though all the astrology stuff is way sillier than it needs to be and familiar faces Jose Ferrer (as a doctor) and Susan Strasberg (as their teacher Miss Davis) show up in smaller roles. Considering her future endeavors, it was pretty odd seeing Brown here but I have to admit she does look pretty good undressed even if she has to embarrassingly prance around with a feather boa during said scene. Generally it's an all-around solid cast even if I felt Freeman's character was mostly pointless as he doesn't contribute nearly as much to their killing spree and has no personality.

While some people would find such fare to be morally wrong due to its subject, I was entertained throughout Bloody Birthday's 85 minutes. It does get a little bit dumb at times and ends on a weak note but there's more than enough bravura posturing by Jayne and anti-social behavior to make it completely watchable. I liked how the script by director Ed Hunt and Barry Pearson just doesn't bother to give much explanation other than the eclipse as it makes our trio all the more ominous and calculating - once they get going, they certainly don't mess around! (Chris Hartley, 3/6/14)

Directed By: Ed Hunt.
Written By: Ed Hunt, Barry Pearson.

Starring: Lori Lethin, Melinda Cordell, Julie Brown, Joe Penny.