Whereupon Nate gets Joe Perry & Joe Penny mixed up, and Will delivers the sobering news that Boner is dead …
Bloody Birthday (1981)
Dir: Ed Hunt
Starring Lori Lethin, Melinda Cordell, Julie Brown, Joe Penny, Bert Kramer, and more!
“In 1970, three children were born during the height of a total eclipse of Saturn, the planet governing emotion. Ten years later these seemingly innocent children have become heartless killers able to move around under the radar of suspicion because of their youthful facades. What happens when a teenage girl and her younger brother stumble upon the horrible truth?”
Nate: How did Joe Perry get so high on the credits, just for that microscopic part as the doctor?
Will: I felt the same way. The ending where the mom covered it up for the girl even though she killed her dad.
Nate: That was pretty creepy. I wondered if she knew that the little girl killed the truck driver in the end.
Will: I don’t think she did. How about the little boy that survived being stuck in the fridge played Mike Seaver’s friend on “Growing Pains?”
Nate: Holy crap, I thought that kid looked familiar. Wasn’t Boner, but the other one. Isn’t Boner dead?
Will: Yes. Andrew Koenig, the guy that played Boner, died. His dad was on the original “Star Trek.”1
Nate: Wow. Speaking of TV, am I remembering this right, that Joe Perry was once on a show where he flew a pink helicopter with a woman’s face on it?”
Will: It is Joe Penny, not Perry. Perry was in Aerosmith. Yes, the show as called “Riptide.”2
Nate: Riiight. Coulda been worse, I kept wanting to call him Steve Perry, isn’t that the dude in Journey?
Will: Yes it is! LOL!
Nate: Back to the movie, I liked when the kid saw the one who locked him in the fridge, he took off after him & started beating the shit out of him.
Will: That was a good scene. I like the scene where the girl charges her friends to watch Julie Brown strip.
Nate: I was kinda disappointed with the Julie Brown nude scenes, actually. Guess she had a lot of work done between 1981 and her MTV show3. Best tits in the whole movie were on the chick in the van scene.
Will: Totally agree there. I just like the fact that they kill but first have to stop and get their rocks off.
Nate: Yeah, that was the weirdest scene in the whole film. Creepy. You’ve seen “Maniac?”
Will: Yes, but it has been years!
Nate: The scene where the lead character kills Tom Savini … the van scene in “Bloody Birthday” reminded me of that. The look on the kid’s face, yeah, killing was his “getting off.” You couldn’t do that scene these days.
Will: No doubt. Also had a “Children of the Corn” vibe.
Nate: Yeah, why is it that almost all “killer kids” movies have some supernatural explanation behind them? Can we just not accept that kids are just naturally prone to murder & evil intent? I think I read that somewhere.
Will: Good point. Also a side note: The blonde boy was pretty useless. The girl and the boy with glasses were pretty much the main killers. He was like their sidekick.
Nate: Word! I thought the exact same thing. I wondered why he was even there but I guess just two kids couldn’t carry all those bodies so they needed the extra hands.
Will: He was the muscle! LOL!
Nate: Wow. If THAT kid’s your muscle, you seriously need to re-evaluate your organization.
Will: I know! How about the skirt the little girl wore, and that she tried to sexually entice that kid by wanting to play doctor in hopes of pushing him off the treehouse?
Nate:Yeah. That was … yeah. That was one pervy little chick, and YET, coulda used her in my neighborhood back in the day.
Will: You ain’t kidding. She learned that “playing doctor” line from the teens making out in the beginning of the movie.
Nate: No doubt.
Will: Did you like “Bloody Birthday?”
Nate: Overall, I liked it. It was weird, a movie that pretty much moved from kill scene to kill scene, but the astrology angle was a nice touch.
Will: I agree. Slow at times, but not bad.
Nate: So, in what way has this movie impacted you since watching it?
Will: I realize that it could happen. I mean, not the same birthday logic, but kids killing. It is a little chilling to know that I teach kids that have the potential to do that, based on what I’ve seen. Also, you don’t need a big budget to make a decent movie. Also found it by mistake, and now I want to search for more movies that did not go mainstream.
Nate: So, you sleep a little lighter around your son, you say?
Will: Ha! Nah. Thinking more like, about my students, lol!
Nate: Me, I ordered the first season of “Riptide” on DVD. I used to dig that show, but really, one season is probably more than anyone should ever need.
~
1Walter Koenig played Chekov in the original “Star Trek” series.
2“Riptide,” starring Joe PENNY and Perry King, aired on NBC from Jan 1984 to Apr 1986.
3“Just Say Julie” aired on MTV from Feb 1989 to Feb 1992.
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