The Children (1980)

Directed by Max Kalmanowicz. Starring Gil Rogers, Martin Shakar, Gale Garnett, Shannon Bolin, Tracy Griswold. [R]

A school bus travels through a toxic fog produced by a leak at a nuclear plant, turning the children aboard into radioactive zombie-like monsters who kill anything they hug. Predictable low-budget horror pic takes place on a series of unusual rural locations without anything to hold it all together as sheriff Rogers and concerned parent Shakar keep driving around trying to figure out what the heck is going on while everyone else gets microwaved into scabby, burnt greyscale by tykes whose unearthly power apparently comes from…their blackened fingernails? Rogers’ performance transitions around the halfway point from amateurish underacting to frenetic overacting. Harry Manfredini’s score relentlessly plunders the likes of Psycho, Jaws and Halloween (even his own Friday the 13th music from that same year), and it’s not even applied properly—the Bernard Herrmann-esque shrieking-strings effect keeps striking several seconds before something “shocking” happens onscreen! The cheesy laughs are spoiled by too many sluggish stretches, including a reveal at the very end that not only can be seen coming from a mile away and requires what feels like a mile of film to finally arrive, but also ultimately disappoints by delivering below those expectations.

22/100