Wednesday gets weird when Late Shift at the Grindhouse hosts Ross Meyer and Joe Derderian dig up low-budget b-movies, horror and gore-fests, and camp classics for your viewing pleasure. Buy your ticket and take a ride in our Time Machine! Punch in and earn a bonus! $3 Pabst Blue Ribbon tallboys and $2 small popcorn! PLUS -- special custom trash trailer reel curated by Ross with cheap swag and prize giveaways!

The Children (1980)

Directed by Max Kalmanowicz (Dreams Come True)

After their school bus drives through a yellow cloud of nuclear waste, the children of a small town are transformed into atomic zombies with a lust for blood and carnage!

"The Children may not hold out much hope for the nuclear family's future, but it plays pretty funny, especially after a few brews." - The Phantom of the Movies, The Phantom's Ultimate Video Guide

"The Children breezes by while conjuring a gentle angst.  The film does its best to communicate that adults are assholes, while building tension between quiet spaces and loud disturbances." - Joseph A. Ziemba, Bleeding Skull! - A 1980's Trash-Horror Odyssey

"Effectively combines elements of George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead and David Cronenberg’s The Brood.” - Jonathan Stryker, HorrorNews

Something is terrifyingly wrong with the children of Ravenback. After their school bus passes through a mysterious cloud of yellow smoke, the children are transformed into bloodthirsty zombies with black fingernails which burn anything they touch. As parents and unwitting townspeople are burned to a crisp, the local police force frantically searches for the missing kids, unaware of their new and deadly powers. Shot back-to-back with Friday the 13th — and sharing some of the same crew — Max Kalmanowicz's The Children is an outrageous and fun drive-in horror classic. Featuring an eerie score from Harry Manfredini (Friday the 13th) and produced by Carlton J. Albright (Luther the Geek), The Children has been newly restored from the best surviving film elements and in its extended director's cut!

Restoration courtesy of Troma and American Genre Film Archive