Is Suffer, Little Children a Hidden Treasure or Dumpster Fire?
DVD Distributed By: Severin Films (Intervision Pictures Corp)
The British tabloid press called for it to be banned among the furor of the Video Nasty witch hunts. The Censors refused it a rating in its uncut form. Many of the children involved in its production were never seen nor heard from again. Now SUFFER, LITTLE CHILDREN can finally be seen FULLY UNCUT AND UNCENSORED!
The full story behind this mysterious occult feature may never be known. The super rare and intensely troubled original UK video release was cut by several minutes and the box copy simply read:
Suffer, Little Children a tale of a child’s demonic supernatural powers and the brutal…. terrifying results. Suffer, Little Children is a reconstruction of the events, which took place at 45 Kingston Road, New Malden, Surrey, England in August 1984. None of these events were reported in the press and now the house is scheduled for demolition in the immediate future.
HOW IN GOD’S NAME DID THE POWER OF THE DEVIL FALL INTO THE HANDS OF A CHILD?
Trashmen Round Table
Jimbo
Does anyone’s opinion alter if you know Suffer, Little Children was basically made by children? Director Alan Briggs’ wife Meg Shanks ran a drama school and Briggs basically recruited the kids to help write, produce, and act in their own film. Suffer, Little Children is basically a school project that was made for 7000 British pounds.
Craig
I like the fact that it was made by kids and I think you can kind of see a bit of children’s logic in the structure. And knowing that I will cut some of the shortcomings some slack. I do wish that they had better mics though. [Bad audio]
Jamie
I really disliked the film. Not because it was such a cheap mess but more because it was a boring cheap mess. The film didn’t try to be entertaining. Long drawn out moments of kids babbling or the heads of the orphanage discussing the children’s habits or what not (hard to tell as the British accents were thick and the sound was so shitty). Greatest sin of any movie is being boring and we “suffered” that.
Jimbo
I didn’t hate the film. To be clear, I would not like Suffer, Little Children if I watched it alone. The group experience is mandatory. However, all in all, I feel like we got what was expected from a DIY, shot-on-video, home project.
Besides it wasn’t all bad. The music soundtrack was awesome, the haunted office scene stood out, the movie had a weird zombie fever dream, and Jesus saves the day! Really, what more could you ask for?
Jamie
I did enjoy the one knife effect to the leg. That was somewhat well handled. The final confrontation with the little mute girl and Jesus (!) with the sounds of laser beams coming out of him was amusing enough but other than that I was so goddamn bored with the movie and the 74 minute running time felt like 174 minutes.
Travis
Suffer, Little Children would have been more interesting as a 5-10 minute short. It would probably be much more fondly remembered than this overlong piece of crap. Not everything needs to be feature length, especially if you are working with limited funds and extremely inexperienced crews.
Jamie
My biggest question was, Why was this released on DVD after all these years? What purpose does it serve as it’s not entertaining at all. Maybe if it was on YouTube I wouldn’t find it so annoying, but as a DVD release? No, it doesn’t warrant a DVD release. What was the point of taking an inept 34 year old movie and putting it on DVD? Is there a cult following that maybe I don’t know about? Who is the target audience for this movie, morons? It’s so far the worst film we have reviewed on Trashmen.
Travis
What was the point of taking an inept 34 year old movie and putting it on DVD?
Horror nerds will buy (and overpay) for almost anything.
Jimbo
Watch who you’re calling a horror nerd!
The answer to “What’s the point?” is “There is no point.” A distributor like Severin Films is preserving and releasing a lot of stuff that mass audiences aren’t looking for. But hardcore niche fans may.
I think Suffer, Little Children benefits from two things. 1) A director (Alan Briggs) who was a rock concert promoter, and knows how to market anything. 2) Great negative PR, courtesy of the British government.
According to the DVD extras, Suffer, Little Children was banned as one of Britain’s “video nasties”. This made it both rare and highly sought after. People love to watch something they’re told they can’t. Because of this it’s been suggested that this became some “holy grail of ultra-low budget oddities.” I’m not sure I agree since I’d never heard of this prior to Severin’s release. But I also lean on Craig for this kind of rare find. It wouldn’t surprise me if he had it on VHS somewhere.
So I think the real questions is, “Why should anyone buy this?”
Or in Jamie’s case, “Why should someone NOT buy this?”
Jamie
It’s awful and lazy and aside from one semi-decent effect, it’s worthless. The extras help make the viewer (Jim) appreciate it more, which is what happened to me a little with Hawk Jones. I appreciated the effort the director took in making the film. Suffer Little Children does have that going for it. It’s made by kids and looks like something I would have conjured up at the age of 15. But at the age of 15 you better believe I would have tried to add more blood or swearing or fart jokes. I would have loved to have done nudity but Klein at 15 was so goddamn red trunked, it would have turned into a nude scene with Adam Suess.
Travis
I personally find it difficult to have extras change my impression of a movie that I’ve found to barely rate on any sort of scale system it’s so bad. There are thousands of painful to watch horror films out there, and any earnest attempts that might be present behind the scenes can’t change the fact that it fucking sucks shit. I’m thinking David “Rock” Nelson here. I give this a 0.5. Laserbolt Jesus keeps it from being a total 0.
Jamie, that is some serious in-joking!
Craig
I really don’t understand the vitriol for this movie. I mean, it ain’t good but I’ve seen worse. I don’t want to get too pretentious about it but I think I would rather watch something like this that you could almost classify as ‘outsider art’ (I’m getting pretentious) than something so overly processed and market researched that it retains no personality at all (go watch Ready Player One). And I thought that there was plenty of unintentional comedy that helped make it more watchable (the kid falling down the stairs, all the Tiger posters, etc).
Jimbo
I’m with Craig on this one. I don’t despise it as much as you guys seem to, nor am I giving it a pass simply because kids can’t make movies as good as Justice League [Smirk]. My expectations were low going in and the movie matched those expectations. My enjoyment was not derived from the quality of the film, but rather the time spent with friends. So maybe my comments have more to do with my personal experience rather than the movie itself, but I didn’t watch the movie alone in my basement. And that’s perhaps my most critical point.
As Travis pointed out, there is an audience for this sort of thing. And I think we watched it exactly how it needs to be watched – with a group, and eager to mock it for everything it does wrong.
Travis
While I understand everyone probably rates certain movies on a curve, as in something poorly made can rate highly (Deadly Prey perhaps?), but other times things are just straight up bad. Hawk Jones had an interesting hook, but couldn’t quite pull it off all the way. Anything that could get the benefit of the doubt to be curved was far too little, much too late.
And I think there is a limit to what becomes better if watched in a group. If you pop in Baby Driver, I don’t care who else is around, I’m out.
Jamie
I do not see a reason to watch it and frankly was bored while we watched it and anxious for it to be over. I agree with Travis, I’m not 100% sold on movies that can be slightly enjoyed more with a group. There is an audience for this film, they are called morons.
Travis
I’m getting a sense that movies today are SO bad, that it is making formerly utter shit movies into somewhat redeeming. While I agree it might make some ‘okay’ movies a little better in hindsight, I still say this sucks no matter what offal is shat into theaters today. Overall I think this one split us down the middle, so anyone else is just going to have to watch it and find out for themselves.
Craig
To be clear, I don’t think it was a good film, I just don’t start screaming and punching holes in my walls with anger when I think about it.
About the music, yeah, I liked it. I do probably listen to a lot of music that all of you would think is for ‘morons’. Some of the background music is pretty atmospheric and reminds me of some musique concrete type compositions or even some of the soundtrack for Texas Chain Saw Massacre. I have a thing for synthesizer music so it just does it for me. Also, I like cheap new wave so the soundtrack pushes those buttons for me as well.
Jamie
You guys seemed to jerk over the soundtrack but I didn’t think it was all that great. The “suffer suffer” song was funny but aside from that it’s not good. I didn’t see what the big deal was.
Jimbo
Severin needs to release the soundtrack. I would buy it.
I know we disagree but to reiterate, I think the value of a title like this comes from how it’s watched and with whom. I would not enjoy watching this movie with my wife. Nor would I enjoy this movie alone. However, a movie can be both absolute garbage, and enjoyed if it’s viewed with the right company. I was in the right company and we had each other to improve the level of entertainment. So that’s my ultimate recommendation and criticism. No one should be surprised by the lack of quality from a DIY, shot-on-video, student film. So it’s better to buddy up with a group of people who might enjoy it together, or just stay away entirely.
It’s a dumpster fire. But that’s also the reason to watch it.
Craig
I agree with Jim, certain films are elevated by watching them with an audience. I guess I would recommend this to people who like oddly produced films (odd like produced by children) and regional shot-on-video weirdness.
Jimbo
Anyone have anything else to add?
Jamie
Ugh, please Jim no more e-mails/discussion on Suffer Little Fucks. Sick of even talking about this movie. I feel like I am at work getting bombarded with e-mails on the same subject. The movie gets one trash can from me. Let’s just rate it and post this thing.
Hidden Treasure/Dumpster Fire?
| Jimbo: |  (1.5 / 5) |
| Travis: |  (0.5 / 5) |
| Craig: | (1.5 / 5) |
| Jamie: |  (1.0 / 5) |
| Average: |  (1.1 / 5) |
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Special Features
- School of Shock – An Interview with Director Alan Briggs
- Seducing The Gullible – An Interview With Legend of UK “Nasty” Era Fanzine Critique John Martin
- Trailer
