The Film (3.5/5)

Sullivan's Children Home just receive a new youth, a mute young girl named Elizabeth who had been dropped off at the children's center doorstep with only a bag full of a handful of clothes.  The heads of the children home, Maurice and Jenny, wholeheartedly accept the poor girl into their home before famous pop star Mick Phillips makes a schedule appearance at the children's orphanage.  Once a former orphan himself, Mick reminisces about his stint at Sullivan's Children Home while trying to swoon Jenny, but a terrorizing force has been causing mass hysteria, crippling accidents, and mysterious occurrences ever since Mick and Elizabeth have arrived that put second thoughts into Maurice and Jenny's fearful minds and speculate one of them of being evil.  Under their noses, Elizabeth is only a guise for a devilish demonic presence seeking to be unleashed upon the world.

Perhaps one of the powerhouse scary children horror films on the UK horror circuit, the controversial 1984 "Suffer Little Children" rears out of rarity onto a proper and official DVD home video releases by Severin Films' distribution label, InterVision Picture Corp., whose mission is to deliver the strangest, rarest, and most controversial indie cult features ever produced from various nations.  Alan Briggs, once one of London's biggest music promotors, helms "Suffer Little Children" in a sole film credit written by his wife and theatre school entrepreneur Meg Shanks.  Considered a student film, Briggs and Shank employ eager minors, starting at the age of 8 years old, to produce a gory demonic-ladden story just beyond the cusp of being a UK video nasty once on the list of banned and confiscated material by the UK Parliament passed Video Recordings Act of 1984.

What makes the "Suffer Little Children" cast unique is their unfamiliarity.  Colin Chamberlain and Ginny Rose play the constantly dumbfounded counselors Maurice and Jenny deluded by the supernatural efforts of the seemingly innocent Elizabeth portrayed by Nicola Diana.  Diana, like most of the other minors enlisted, are just one of the many film students, including Joanna Bryant, Sharnilla Babjee, and Nick Coquet, that raised their hands and supported by their parents to be in an ambitious and Government proclaimed indecent horror film.  The student filmmakers, these children with a few young adults, embrace their adolescent-possessed roles churning out a deranged group of kids to wreak bright blood red havoc.  Jon Hollanz and Mark Insull round out the cast as the pop star and his handsy groupie.

Alan Briggs' DIY SOV horror displays a slow burn to a fiery finish, building up Elizabeth's powers slowly, surely, and then, ultimately, a force to be reckoned with, but Elizabeth's burning and psychotic desire to bring forth her inner demon isn't the kicker.  Between Shanks' script and Briggs' music video recording past, an epileptic-inducing climax has to be, hands down, one of the best bizarre endings ever to construct a thematic good versus evil finale blowout.  Essentially, Briggs' skimpy exposition into why Elizabeth's has these demonic powers goes favorably null and void when the lights dull, the strobe light switch is flipped on, and the proverbial shit his the fan complete with monotonous chanting and a pre-Harry Potter Cruciatus curse! 

Audio/Video (1.5/5)

InterVision Picture Corp. releases "Suffer Little Children" fully uncut and exhibited in the original full frame 1.33:1 format.  The video tape quality has noticeably deteriorated and maintains a healthy track record with tracking lines, but even with washed out coloring and soft details, the image quality isn't a total loss for video tape quality dating back more than 30 years.    The restoration of the minutes worth of cut material is well worth suffering through some trivial video quality quibbles. 

The Dolby Digital mono mix can't be regarding equally with the video.  When trying to understand the British accent heavy dialogue, the optional English closed captioning subtitles are the best course of action, but even then the transcriber had difficulties and just labeled indescribable dialogue inaudible during muddled and lack of fidelity points.  The rock laced soundtrack becomes bittersweet by drowning out the already soft dialogue with the insatiable awesomeness.

Extras (2.5/5)

Extras include an brief interview with director Alan Briggs entitled "School of Shock" that provides context to the look, feel, and nature behind the "Suffer Little Children."  It's a great approach to take first before the film to get a better understanding of the filmmakers experience and vision.  There's also an interview with Legend of UK "Nasty" era Fanzine Critique John Martin who tells a bit of history behind the Britain's Video Recording Act of 1984 and how Briggs' film was unjustly judged, edited, and banned.  InterVision's cut of the film's trailer rounds out the extras.

Overall

Like "The Exorcist," like the "Village of the Damned," "Suffer Little Children" should be right up there with children horror define not by an underlying, profound premise, but rather in the intensity of the content and the passion behind the students of theater arts and, finally, there's a "Strong Uncut Version" ready to spark again the debate even if the technical attributes are not above par.  Recommend!