"Hammer House of Horror" Children of the Full Moon (1980)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Tom Clegg

Writer:

Murray Smith (screenplay)

TV Series:

"Hammer House of Horror" (1980)

Original Air Date:

1 November 1980 (Season 1, Episode 8)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

A married couple, lost in the woods, stumble across a creepy mansion and its inhabitants - an overly-kind old women and deadly wolf children that scour the country-side looking for victims.

Plot Keywords:

Couple | Forest | Stranded | House | Gore

Cast

Christopher Cazenove	...	Tom
Celia Gregory	...	Sarah
Diana Dors	...	Mrs. Ardoy
Robert Urquhart	...	Harry
Jacob Witkin	...	Woodcutter
Adrian Mann	...	Tadek Kuchinsky
Victoria Wood	...	Sophy
Sophie Kind	...	Eloise
Matthew Dorman	...	Young Boy
Wilhelmina Green	...	Young Girl
Corinna Reardon	...	Small Girl
Daniel Payne	...	Small Boy
Natalie Payne	...	Irenya
Daniel Kipling	...	Andreas

Runtime:

USA:60 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Netherlands:16

Company:

Hammer Film Productions

Short, but twisted

I don't think I will ever forget the first and only time I saw this mini horror movie. It was when I was 12 or 13 years old, and I was up late one night because I just couldn't sleep. I was watching the boob-tube around 1 or 2 in the morning, and I saw the start of this movie on TBS. I am not a big fan or horror movies, but for some reason I stuck around and watched it.

I remember the plot vividly. A young married couple are traveling through a remote part of England when their car stalls. They go in search of help in the woods, and find a mansion filled with children and a kindly old lady (maybe a little TOO kindly). They spend the night at the mansion, and learn that all of the parents of the children living their died mysteriously. One little girl even proceeds to tell about her own mother, who was just a beautiful as the visiting lady. Although the family living there is odd, the lost couple gives in to their agressive hospitality. During the night, a horrific event takes place and the young wife is raped by a werewolf.

The couple leaves the next day. The young wife ends up pregnant (due to the rape) and strangly drawn back to the house. She cannot stop talking about it, which drives a wedge between the woman and her husband. Eventually, near the end of the her pregnancy, the wife goes back to find the house. Her frustrated husband follows. The wife finds the house and is invited back in, and by some odd coicidence she goes into labor. Instead of calling the doctor, the kindly old woman offers to help deliver the baby. The young wife dies in childbirth, and the old woman remarks how the baby, a daughter, will make a fine addition to the family. The husband, meanwhile, gets close to the house and never gets in; a werewolf tracks him down and kills him. As it turns out, the children are wolves, too, and the parents are their prey. The new baby will be a wolf, too.

This movie is very unusual. First, the plot is pretty twisted. The movie iteself is also virtually unknown, as I cannot find any information about it on any other website besides distribution and limited cast information. I don't even remember the names of the characters, and I remember only a little about the old women (I have seen her act before) and the name Simon MacCorkindale, who is one if my favorite actors. I also remember the movie ending just as quickly as it began- it's only 60 minutes long, which is unusually short for a movie.

Overall, I liked the movie and I hope to see it again someday in the future now that I have more information about it. I have no idea why, but I never forgot it.