Though I consider my self a fan of the low-budget 80s horror movies, The Children managed to slip under my radar until Troma announced they were looking for prints for a DVD release last year.  Of course, that's understandable, since the film's not been available on any kind of video format in around twenty years.  I went into The Children not really knowing what to expect, except for the reviews I had skimmed which either praised it as a classic b-movie from the golden era of the early 1980s or considered it to be a rancid piece of tripe that wasn't worth the celluloid it was shot on, though did manage to be amusing.  When my DVD arrived, I wasn't sure what I was getting into...

The film starts at a nuclear power plant where the workers are less concerned about looking for a pressure leak than they are about going to the local bar to throw a couple brewskis back.  Well, as I'm sure you can imagine, this leads to a leak of nuclear radiation, in this case, a large puff of yellow smog.  Coincidentally, the  smog appears right as a school bus returning the children of the nearby rural town called Ravensback from a day of school.  After they pass through the smog, the bus is found completely empty and the local police is baffled on what could have caused this.  A full scale search is underway in Ravensback, as they try to find where the children have disappeared to.  However, when they finally find them, they discover they're not the same after their ride through the nuclear smog: their fingernails are black and their eyes darkened, but unfortunately it's not because they've discovered the music of The Cure and Bauhaus, but because they've changed.  When they reach out for hugs from their parents and other townspeople, they find their gift of love actually causes their skin to char and melt and death comes shortly afterward.

Though the plot may sound a bit hokey and the film has enough flaws of it's own, I found my experience with The Children to be quite enjoyable.  It's one of those films you find on a well-used video tape at your local ancient mom-and-pop video store that you give a random chance during a late night horror fest in your bedroom.  In other words, it's not cinematic excellence, but for what it is: a 1980s low-budget horror flick, it's worth checking out.

But as I mentioned, the film is plagued with problems.  First off, director Max Kalmanowicz is not a good director.  Not at all.  Even writer/producer Carlton J. Albright admits to this in one of his interviews on the DVD.  Kalmanowicz has managed to put way too much unnecessary padding into the film, including one sequence that takes up a good five minutes introducing a character who we never see or hear from again.  That's what really drags the film down from being classic:  the director's absolute lack of pacing.  Not only that, but he manages to take what could have been a very good cast and get some fairly poor performances.  Though understandable due to the budget, the special effects leave a good bit to be desired and the child actors (mostly composed of Carlton J. Albright's own children) left me a bit let down.  I'm used to young kids in horror movies like The Children to make my skin crawl with their eeriness, but I didn't get that feeling at all when watching The Children.

However, you can look past these shortcomings easily, because The Children at least manages to maintain your interest, which many films of the same era fail to accomplish, and can be analyzed as a very interesting commentary on the ups-and-downs of parenthood.  Though some may scoff at analyzing the children's outcry for love smothering their parents, I personally feel that Carlton Albright pulled off a very interesting parental commentary.  It's not high-art or even the best Troma release you can find, but The Children is well-worth your time and the DVD has plenty of interesting extras.

Which brings me to the DVD release.  Though many fans of the film are quite irate, due to the video quality of the DVD, I have to tell you right now, there's no reason to be so condescending toward the release.  First off, Troma did something they rarely do for a DVD release: created a brand new transfer, instead of using a previous video master.  This shows that at least some care went into the presentation.  However, the problem lies in the quality of the source print, which is obviously a print that was played theatrically and is riddled with scratches, dust, hair, and at least one film break during every reel change.  However, when the print isn't near it's reel changes, the picture looks just fine.  Even though I would have loved to see Troma release this film in a pristine transfer from the camera negative or inter-positive, the materials just were not available.  Considering the fact that Carlton J. Albright was working with Troma every step of the way and was a part of their search for a print, I'd say that the print they used was the best one in existence.  With that being said, do not read the negative reviews of this disc and decide not to buy it because of the poor image quality.  Because I'm telling you right now, the image looks just fine and only the damage to the print, which is unfortunately all Troma and Albright could manage to find for this release, causes a problem with the image and it's not as major as the reviews would lead you to believe.  Maybe someday, the negative for the film will finally resurface and we will see a better transfer, but until then, Troma's transfer is perfectly capable of presenting the film.