All the Kind Strangers

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01/02/2016 Growing up, my introduction to the great hard-boiled work of Mickey Spillane was the TV series 'Mike Hammer', in which Stacy Keach was the ninth of the 11--so far--to portray the private eye. I was sad when the series was cancelled because he had been jailed for smuggling cocaine, but I always kept an eye out for his fine acting in the realm of cinema. This led to my great enjoyment of his work in 'The Ninth Configuration', 'W.', and 'Escape from L.A.', and when I saw that he was in this TV-movie, found in my 50-film Mill Creek pack, 'Nightmare Worlds', I was extremely enthused, though I had never seen any films by director Burt Kennedy, though I had heard of him. Keach is definitely one of my favourite character actors in contemporary or recent (post-1970) cinema. Though on a very low budget, with seven children and two adults, a car and a farmhouse, this 'Children of the Corn'-meets-'Deliverance'-meets-'Lord of the Flies' is really worth your time. It brings mood, despair and desperation together in a bewitching concoction, and is suspenseful, without resorting to gore or other gimmickry (judging from the lurid glances Keach's Jimmy got from the oldest girl, Martha, I think I can assume any modern-day remakes wouldn't pass up that plot-possibility, or possible incest between the coming-of-age characters), and at the same time, without resorting to cheesy, Hallmark-movie-of-the-week pat easy solutions to the crisis that not only the two kidnapped adults face, but the seven children, in their bleak, desperate, no-future situations do as well. Heartily recommended for the whole family. This is one film that parents and their children could watch together and talk about afterwards, for such questions as, 'Why did the children feel it was necessary for parent-type people to be around?' I wish more self-obsessed teenagers and young adults of today could watch this and think about how blessed they really are to have the parents and family that they do have. It might make an important difference in their lives. THAT is one of the beautiful and compelling mysteries of cinema. See more 05/16/2013 Not bad for a TV movie, and if it was remade it could make a decent little horror feature, but it never takes off enough with it's creepiness to be frightening. It has a lot of eerie tension and a horror premise, but ends more settled and happily than one would expect. Still, it's a nice little gem, though it could be better. See more 01/10/2011 Kept waiting for something to happen. Was pretty boring even though at the beginning the tension was there, but the longer the movie went, the more the tension that was created slipped away and made me lose interest in the movie. Kind of hard to get into, and the killer children genre is usually pretty spot on with the movies that are made of that. Always been a fan of stacy Keach's though. See more 12/05/2010 Classic 70s suspense, could have been real creepy. Luv RBenson singing the theme song tho lolz. See more 10/12/2010 saturday matinee time See more 12/09/2008 Good movie but the info is a little off. There wasn't a couple.. it was just a man. See more Read all reviews

All the Kind Strangers

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