On my eighth birthday I had the usual party. I invited my friends, we ate tons of crazy shit and odds are we watched a movie or three. There was ice cream and whatnot, and it was a grand old time. But for KT, the little girl in this film I'm going to talk about, her eighth birthday was all about kidnappings and devil worshipings, which was what my ninth birthday party was like.

KT and her father and stepmother are on their way to grandma's house for her birthday. She had spent the day with some friends, and was now sleepily laying in the backseat of her father's car, when suddenly, they find a car and a family crushed to death by the side of the road! They rush to the nearest town, some sleepy nowhere place buried in California somewhere, and try to alert the local sheriff, but everyone in the town is acting strange. After being almost killed by the sheriff, they are run out of town by a rampaging mob of crazed citizens, and decide to forget what happened and continue toward Grandma's house.

On the way there, a little girl appears in front of the car, causing Ben, KT's dad, to swerve and wreck the car. With no sign of the girl they should have hit, and the rain rolling in, they have no choice but to return to the town of crazies and find some help. Avoiding my pleas for them to find another town, they head back to the sheriff's office and find them more hospitable this time around. It becomes painfully obvious that something strange is going on, and we soon find out that three days ago, for some unknown reason, people have been unable to get in and out of town, which made Ben and and his family's appearance all the weirder. If that weren't enough, nine children have disappeared and their families have been found murdered and mangled.

It turns out a coven of old people satanists have set up shop in town, and are stealing children for a dastardly purpose. The sheriff and everyone else in town is unable to stop the disappearances and the murders, and its frustrating the hell out of them. Ben and his family try to leave the town again, but when KT is kidnapped by the coven, they have no choice but to return and try to fight them with the Sheriff and a few others. The small group quickly descends on the coven of wrinkly, old devil worshipers, but will they be too late to stop them from carrying out their horrible goals?

This film was surprisingly good. I wasn't expecting much, but I have to say that I was thoroughly entertained. Creepy kids are always great ways to get a rise out of the audience, and debauched, satan-loving old guys and gals are even creepier. The combination works wonders with the town-under-siege plot and I was riveted from beginning to end, trying to figure out what was going on, and how it would all come to an end. The one bit I didn't like was an extremely-long and nonsensical dream sequence that happens toward the middle of the movie and yanks the film to a screeching halt. There are a few great surprises sprinkled throughout, which I have tried very hard not to ruin, so if you get a chance and feel like running down the devil, then check this one out. It makes great birthday movie fodder.

- Jose Prendes