All the Kind Strangers

source: All the Kind Strangers

All the Kind Strangers

It's a perfect topic for a modern Spanish horror movie. Spanish because it is question here of children, and Spanish horror films are often around children. That's not the first picture with such a scheme. I did not know this film at all, even directed by Burt Kennedy. Tense, taut and suspenseful all long.

This movie is kind of like "Lord of the Flies". A family of children (no mother or father present) desire to have guardians (Mom and Dad), so they kidnap a man and woman to be just that. What happens next is (of course) the movie. One thing to note is that not every one of the children (in fact most of them are not) aware of the secret!

This is just a made-for-TV movie, but it is creepy fun. It is also the rare scary movie that you can safely watch with your kids, without traumatizing them. In fact the movie carries quite a strong family values message. There is no explicit gory violence, so those who watch movies looking for that would be disappointed. The thrills here are mostly of the anticipatory kind. I think kids from about 8 to 14 will find much in this movie that they can identify with and that will make them uneasy about how they would react in the situation. There is very good work from Stacy Keach and John Savage and a young Robbie Benson is as good as he ever gets.

The film does get a bit interesting - it hits a couple of lulls but that doesn't last long then it picks right back up again. There is a creepiness to these kids -- not like Children of the Corn creepy but more of a subtle creepiness to them. Fun little trivia: The $60 shoes in 1974 would cost about $316 in 2019 according to the inflation calculator. 5/10

A couple traveling through a backwoods area are held by a a group of orphans who want them to become their parents. Unfortunately, the kids have a habit of killing adults who refuse that particular honor. TV movie from the 70s when harder, more adult film work was possible. Stacy Keach at the height of his coke habit. It's a pretty good movie. TV doesn't make good anything any more so cherish this. It's very well made and directed. The 70s were a good time for TV movies

The story here is about backwoods children who lure unsuspecting adults to their house in the deep forest where they imprison them and force them to be their parents. Those who do not shape up are killed. It's an interesting idea and its played out pretty well. It has an effective off-kilter atmosphere, even if it never really gets very tense. The acting was decent enough with some good players like Stacey 'The Long Riders' Keach, Samantha 'The Brood' Eggar and a young John 'Salvador' Savage. I do have a fondness for 70's TV movies to be fair and I did see this one when I was very young on UK daytime television sometime around 1980. I couldn't actually remember it though so it was interesting to see it again all these years later. I might be in the minority possibly but I also liked the title song. It was a very early 70's idea to include these types of breezy folk-pop songs in movies and I am always a bit of a sucker for this kind of thing and it does add a certain cozy charm here.