31 Days Of Horror: Day 29 ‘Bloody Birthday’ (1981)

Written and Directed by: Ed Hunt

Synopsis: Three children were born at the height of an eclipse of the sun in 1970. Ten years later, they begin to murder the people around them – even their family members.

Ten years after being born during the height of a solar eclipse, Debbie (Elizabeth Hoy), Curtis (Billy Jayne) and Steven (Andrew Freeman) have become inseparable. Due to Saturn being blocked in their astrological sign, they also lack the ability to feel remorse. One day on a whim, they decide to kill a young couple making out in the local cemetery. That kicks off a series of murders including Debbie’s sheriff father, their teacher and Debbie’s sister Beverly (Julie Brown). The bodies are piling up but when they attempt to take out young Timmy Russel (K.C. Martel) in a junkyard, he cleverly escapes. That begins multiple attempts of the evil trio to hunt down and kill Timmy and his sister Joyce (Lori Lethin).

This is one of those classic 80’s horror flicks and I’m shocked it never crossed my path before now. You have a trio of creepy little doe-eyed children getting progressively more evil as the plot moves forward. There’s pint-sized violence that gets more hilarious as the kill count rises. With shovels, jump ropes, bows, arrows and even one kid brandishing a high-caliber revolver you’ll find yourself uttering “WTF am I watching?”. It’s pure gold though. For being an early, early 80’s horror film, this one holds up surprisingly well. 

If you’re a fan of 80’s fare, you’ll probably recognize a few faces in this as well. Elizabeth Hoy was the “small child” Jake tried to buy in Blues Brothers and Billy Jayne was younger brother Bud in Just One of the Guys (an absolute classic in my book). Lori Lethin from Return to Horror High plays Timmy’s older sister. Had this biggest crush on her in that one. Not to mention, Julie Brown from Earth Girls Are Easy plays the other older sister who takes her top off a few times. 

All in all, this was a fun little flick with insane rewatchability. I mean, creepy kids? How can you go wrong? Aside from dolls (a fear that I’m slowly desensitizing to) kids are second on the list of all-time fears. They’re all smiles then, boom, they’re shooting you with a .357. Can’t trust those little assholes. Haha!

If you’re looking for a good 80’s horror that doesn’t require a whole lot of thought then look no further. Bloody Birthday can be streamed on Tubi as of this writing. 

Join me again tomorrow as we hit the home stretch. Two days left in this strange little journey down the horror rabbit hole.