Leofwine_draca Here's a VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED variant which successfully manages to evoke the odd chill or two with its unusual storyline - a story so unusual that this often pops up as the solution to "name that movie" questions. It's a slow-paced film which won't appeal to all audiences, but with that slow pacing comes a creepy atmosphere heightened by lots of dark and shadowy sets from which anything may pounce. While THE CHILDREN OF RAVENSBACK is nothing new - it shares the same setting and type of plot as many other low budget American productions of the time, for example MUTANT - it is however an efficient horror yarn with a unique twist.Things begin in a TWILIGHT ZONE fashion with a leak at a nuclear plant. Shortly afterwards a school bus drives through the yellow cloud, and is discovered empty by the town's sheriff (who bears a remarkable resemblance to Craig T. Nelson from POLTERGEIST as it happens). Initially, it's all very weird and unsettling, with things becoming more disturbing with the discovery of a mutilated corpse - that of the bus-driver - at a nearby cemetery. The killer, it turns out, is a schoolboy who has now become a killer zombie thanks to the radiation (quite how is never explained, which is fine with me) who can burn people through touch alone. The child zombies are distinguishable through their black fingernails and pale complexion.From then on, the Sheriff teams up with the father of one of the children as more of the townsfolk begin to die after being embraced by the kiddies. A roadblock is set up to no avail, and its discovered that bullets can have no effect on the zombies either. As night falls, the sheriff and a family hole up inside a house as the children gather outside, in a scene obviously influenced by NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and with much the same atmosphere.As you can see, the plot is pretty light and action-focused (the story takes place over the course of a single day and night), which is no bad thing if done right. There are a number of shocking scenes of violence, especially against children, which are pretty unexpected. Scenes of the kids getting their body parts chopped off are pretty graphic and not what you would expect. A kid hovers outside of a bedroom window in a sequence lifted from SALEM'S LOT. The downbeat ending contains a supposed "shock" scene which can be spotted a mile off.The music copies Herrman's PSYCHO score, and the acting is all pretty amateurish, with the exception of Gil Rogers who is pretty good as the (very) human hero, the sheriff. The special effects are done on a very low budget, with scenes of people burning fading in and out (a technique perfected back in the '30s). However shots of the disgusting burnt corpses are well done, as are the various gore scenes at the end. I enjoyed this film for its portrayal of small town life plunged into an inescapable nightmare, and quirky situations like when the sheriff stumbles upon a nude sunbather and her bodybuilder boyfriend. The action scenes are both exciting and scary. Interestingly this feels like a '50s film, what with the radiated monsters and investigating civilians and police, except with a harder edge. While not a masterpiece, this is an agreeably old-fashioned monster movie with some good scares and atmosphere to recommend it.

gavin6942 The Yankee Power Company nuclear power facility near Ravensback has a weird gas leak, and the area children (annoying little singers) are exposed to it when the bus drives down the wrong road. The kids become horrible mutants who melt anything they touch with the power of toxic waste.This one was directed by Max Kalmanowicz, who did little else of note. However, others involved with this movie went on to collaborate on "Luther the Geek", which is much more well-known.The bodybuilder Jack is pretty awesome when he tells the sheriff whether or not he saw his daughter Janet "lurking around".Complaint: the film needs more exposed breasts... the hot chick, Suzie (Joy Glaccum), not only stays clothed, but dies too soon.One musical selection sounds like somewhere between Bernard Hermann and Richard Band's "Re-Animator" score. The composer? Harry Manfredini! Overlooked horror film, easily worth a look if you enjoy horror films of its era. I have seen many, many worse films that are more well known. If this film had a decent DVD release, and not just a cheap transfer, I think it could actually be a decent seller.

Aaron1375 Yes, this movie was one I saw a lot of as a kid, does not get any play now however. I am sure you can find it floating around on the Internet, or maybe at amazon, but the type of channels that would play this one just do not exist anymore. Now you are lucky to find a channel that plays something that was made two years ago and does not consider that to be a classic. I digress, this movie was somewhat enjoyable for me when I watched it. Granted the whole premise of the movie is totally unbelievable, but that is what makes a horror movie fun. Though a supernatural cause always works better for me, than what we have here, the deadly chemical. For some reason deadly chemicals in movies cause strange reactions in movies...rather than just kill they mutate or cause a person to go insane, or mutate and go insane! Here, it causes children on a bus to become silent and want to reach out and hug everyone around them. It also gives them black fingernails too, sounds harmless enough, however, when these children hug you it means death! Yes, there is reason to fear your child's hug in this movie as people caught in these kiddies clutches die in a somewhat gruesome way, though they could have made it worse and better. Still, interesting enough movie, rather straight horror movie and I think it is a Troma movie, so it proves they could make a somewhat good horror movie without being incredibly stupid if they tried.

shmucking I thought the movie started out very promisingly. It had a sinister, understated beginning. But as the film progressed, it didn't follow through. The characters weren't interesting, the movie gets tedious and it didn't have any momentum. That seems to be the problem with a lot of horror films, and it's too bad on this one, because it could've been great. I'd love to see this movie re-made and have it follow through on the creepiness of the beginning. I think I'll buy it on VHS anyway. This was made around the time of all those delightful 80's horror films. Plus, the theater I saw it in had a weird flower smell that somehow fit the movie, and made it more scary.