The Child (1977 film)

In the mid-20th century United States, Alicianne Del Mar takes a job as a housekeeper at the rural Nordon estate. After accidentally crashing her car en route, she wanders through the woods to locate the home. Having been raised in the area, Alicianne is confident she can locate it. She is met by Mrs. Whitfield, an elderly woman walking her dog, who directs Alicianne to the Nordon residence. In the woods, Alicianne sees a mutilated cat, and later, what appears to be a clawed hand gripping the edge of a tree. While approaching the Nordon home, she stumbles upon an abandoned cemetery, where she witnesses a pallid figure cower behind underbrush. Frightened, Alicianne flees to the house.

She is met by Mr. Nordon, a widower who lives in the large home with his adult son, Len, and the young Rosalie. Len confides in Alicianne that his mother was murdered in the woods by tramps years prior. Mrs. Whitfield, who is considered a nosy nuisance to the Nordons, is attacked at her home by an unseen presence. When she tries to flee, Rosalie appears outside, taunting her and saying she has brought her "friends" with her. Mrs. Whitfield goes to hide in her basement, but is attacked by a claw-handed figure who rips out one of her eyes before murdering her.

On Halloween, Alicianne witnesses a jack o' lantern moving on its own in the den. The same night, Rosalie, dressed as a witch, wanders into the woods to a shack occupied by one of the tramps who murdered her mother; she confronts the man, who is in possession of her mother's jewelry, while an unseen assailant uses a shotgun to kill him. Later, Rosalie's father rebukes her for sneaking out of the house, and questions why she spends so much time in the abandoned cemetery near the home. Rosalie is defiant, and accuses him of killing her mother.

Len finds the tramp's corpse in the shack, and Alicianne subsequently witnesses a mutated figure peering into the window. While Len is outside, Alicianne finds his father's corpse on the stairwell, his eye removed. Alicianne and Len flee, but Len's car breaks down as they attempt to drive away. The two are suddenly attacked by a mob of decayed zombies—the "friends" of Rosalie, whom she summons from the cemetery to commit evil deeds at her whim. Alicianne and Len manage to distract the zombies with the car horn, and barricade themselves in an abandoned factory building. The zombies eventually infiltrate, dragging Len beneath the floorboards and mutilating his head. Alicianne, now alone, hears a door opening, and attacks the intruder with an axe, only realizing moments later that it is Rosalie who she has bludgeoned. Alicianne watches in shock as Rosalie dies, and staggers out of the building in a daze.

• Laurel Barnett as Alicianne Del Mar
• Rosalie Cole as Rosalie Nordon
• Frank Janson as Nordon
• Richard Hanners as Len Nordon
• Ruth Ballan as Mrs. Whitfield

The Child received a regional release on January 19, 1977 in the United States, screening in Tennessee, Indiana, and Kentucky; it also opened in Rome, Italy on the same date.[2] It later opened in Victoria, Texas on March 11, 1977.[3]

• The Child at IMDb