Apaches (1977) User Reviews

And Then There Were None

[Theo Robertson · 7/10 · 28 July 2013]

This is a short film from 1977 produced by the government's health and safety executive warning children about the dangers of playing on farms to be shown in schools . Strangely despite living on an Island dependent on farming for the local economy it's a film that was never broadcast at my school . If it was shown my peers and myself would have certainly remembered seeing it

The story involves a group of six children who innocently play at being Indians on a farm . Innocent days indeed where the spirit of young adventure involved children playing at soldiers or cowboys and Indians and appropriately the scenario here resembles Agatha Christie's TEN LITTLE INDIANS as the group of six Apaches get whittled away to zero

What strikes you about watching this is how graphic some of the scenes are , It's not on the level of video nasty or torture porn but at the same time it'd be impossible for the late John Mackenzie to get away with some of the scenes nowadays such as a small pool of blood being shown after a child falls under the wheels of a moving tractor or most chilling of all a young girl screaming out in agony after being poisoned . The film ends with a poignant list of names of children killed the previous year in farm accidents

One thing that perhaps doesn't work entirely successfully is an aspect of logic . The farmer seen is very friendly and doesn't mind young scamps playing on his farm and it's seems strange that none of the children learn there lesson that after their friends die on the farm they don't come to the conclusion that it's perhaps a bad idea playing on farms so become too obvious plot devices , but that's the whole point that if you don't learn from other people experiences you may very well end up dead

Edgar Wright was right - its worth watching

[rabbitmoon · 8/10 · 14 July 2017]

I sought this out based on Edgar Wright's list of 10 lesser known recommended movies. I found it on the BFI double-disc set (vol 4) of public information films (called Stop! Look! Listen!), along with some other eerie curios about the danger of strangers, water, fire, speeding etc (the one about strangers is almost as disturbing as Apaches).

Apaches is fascinating. Throughout, its clear that John Mackenzie (The Long Good Friday) is really dedicated to the project, the writing and direction are beyond what you'd expect. There's some great photography and moments, and how the kids riff on American TV tropes is fun. Things I noticed:

• Although insanely dark (innocent kids getting accidentally killed on a farm), I also can't help but find it quite funny at times. Its like the worst kind of black humour. - Listening to the kids shouting/talking led to me wanting to see the next kill, which made me feel pretty shameful, like some twisted version of the 'Final Destination' formula. - The narration of the boy over key scenes is really effective. - There are lots of disturbing juxtapositions: the kids using American cop TV lingo in their games whilst being kids on a farm, the kids play against the parents laying a table for a wake, the innocence of play against the brutal potential deathtraps on a farm.

However amusing it might feel at times, by the end credits you'll feel disturbed.

If Friday the 13th was a Summer-camp safety PSA.

[juliankennedy23 · 8/10 · 9 November 2018]

Apaches: 8 out of 10: There is a fine line between a nasty horror movie and a PSA. Is Hostel a horror movie or a level-headed PSA against the dangers of youth hostels in Eastern Europe? Is the original Friday the 13th a PSA about paying attention to poor swimmers named Jason? Isn't any Adam Sandler movie simply a PSA about watching an Adam Sandler movie.

The film Apaches is about both Final Destination style killing of children as well as farm safety. Guess which part it is known for.

To the credit, of the film it used real children instead of child actors which makes for a more realistic and natural group of kids. It also makes the screams of terror that much more frightening. This is truly an effective horror film.

Full Disclosure I had some close calls with various farm impliments at a farm in Ireland in the mid-seventies when this film takes place so it might ring more true to myself than others. The film also has the best version of kids playing kick the can I have ever seen (The way one kid whines about how you have to follow the rules before he is decapitated by a thresher or something)

The film also helpfully lists the names of children actually killed at farms in the last year and the method used (Impalement, electrocution etc) to make sure you won't have a good nights sleep for some time to come.

I sent a copy of this short to the Rifftrax lads with the intention that they do it. It would make for perfect live show fodder for them.

An honestly effective film about the dangers of playing on a farm. A little too effective to be blunt.

Horrifying!

[toffeeapples-11822 · 10/10 · 6 January 2020]

I was made to watch this film when I was ten or eleven, around 1978 while at Ysgol David Hughes in Menai Bridge on Angelsey (That's David Hughes School for you non Welsh people) and it has stuck with me since. Growing up in a rural area surrounded by farms it put an abrupt halt to my sneaking in to farms and exploring.

A horrifying and dreamlike short film.

[brianberta · 9/10 · 18 September 2021]

I have a weird interest in public information films and advertisements. As long as you're not endangering other people, I don't care if people do drugs, get drunk, etc. And I recognize it as your own personal choice. However, I enjoy the horrific, disturbing, gory, surreal, and darkly humorous ways these forms of art can deliver their messages. So far though, I've yet to see a PIF better than this one.

A lot of PIFs can be preachy with their messages, but this film avoids that and delivers its messages in subtle ways. For example, instead of a preachy line of dialogue that condemns the parents for failing to properly take care of their kids, this point is conveyed indirectly. The parents are shown mostly in the background of their kids playing, paying no attention to them and going about their work as normal. The implication is that the parents aren't watching their kids closely enough and are partly responsible for their deaths. Even the closing credits which list various kids who were killed in farm accidents avoids being preachy as, since it's juxtaposed with the parents nonchalantly eating dinner and seemingly paying no attention to how several kids have died on the farm in such a short time span, it implies that nothing has been fixed and these accidents will continue to happen if the parents don't change their ways.

I think that director John Mackenzie finds the right balance between depicting the disturbing elements of the death scenes without wallowing in excessive violence. For example, a young girl is run over by a tractor in the opening, but instead of showing her body being run over, we see a cut away right as she falls under the wheel, a shot of the tractor wheels moving up and down as they drive over her, and a small trickle of blood left over after her death. While some blood is shown in at least one more death scene later on, the violence in it isn't excessive either and feels more disturbing than violent. Mackenzie also utilizes quick cuts and frenetic cinematography for the build up to some of the death scenes to increase the intensity of them, making them all the more effective. The most disturbing death in this film though was Sharon's, by far. After she accidentally ingests a toxic substance on the farm (weed killer, I think), she returns home and begins screaming in pain and calling for her parents in the middle of the night as the substance burns her from the inside. It's a truly horrifying scene and, even though it's shown offscreen, her blood-curdling and horrifying screams say all that is needed.

The film also feels dreamlike for a handful of reasons. For instance, in between the vignettes of the kids dying lies a couple scenes which occur after their deaths at different points in time. A few of those scenes, like their nametags or books being removed from their school or their clothes being removed from their dressers, convey part of the aftermath of their deaths. Another recurring scene shows a group of parents getting ready to eat dinner. They set the table, shine their shoes, and lay out clothes to wear for it. The lack of context to what they're doing causes one to speculate on what the purpose of the dinner will be and what it means for the surviving kids. Danny's narration also contributes to the film's dreamlike feel. He assumes the character of a Native American chief and gives insight both to what the kids are doing when they play and the "party" the parents are preparing for. Since Danny dies prior to the dinner, his narration takes on a ghostly feel, one which is heightened upon rewatching the film. These touches of surrealism add a lot to the film.

The best extension of the surrealism though concerns the behavior of the kids. In spite of how their reckless behavior causes them to die one by one throughout the film, they continue to play with each other as if nothing has happened. Though this may seem really confusing at first glance, the title of the film provides the reason for their behavior. The Apache are a group of Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States that have been around for several hundred years. Historically, if some of them were killed in a raid or a fight, they wouldn't give up - they would fight in more raids. This extends to the behavior of the kids. They pretended to fight each other and other people throughout the film and, even if one of them was killed, they'd continue play-fighting as Apaches another day.

Overall, Apaches is a great short film. Even if public information films aren't in your normal wheelhouse, you should still check it out as it contains a lot to enjoy.

There will be blood (if you don't follow the rules)

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 10 July 2017]

"Apaches" is a British television movie that is not really a documentary film, but more of an educational work. It runs for 27 minutes and the writer and director basically enjoyed long careers in the industry, so this one here is probably not one of their most or least known works I would say. The cast is predominantly children as this movie is supposed to teach children how to behave on a farm in order to avoid all kinds of danger. St times, the film feels so absurd that I really cannot take it seriously as an educational film, but see it rather as a fictitious comedy, even if I believe that is probably not what it was intended as. Anyway, I had to think of the Gabelstaplerfahrer movie right away, not because that one is also a short film, but because there also gruesomely violent things happen and it is also somewhat funny to watch. Anyway, back to this one here. I would say the cinematic level and writing here is not on a level where I would recommend. Have to give this one a thumbs-down. Watch something else instead.