My early exposure to Mickey Spillane's hard-boiled detective stories came through the TV series 'Mike Hammer', where Stacy Keach was the ninth actor out of eleven—at least so far—to play the part. I was disappointed when that show got taken off the air because he’d been incarcerated for smuggling cocaine, but I continued to look for his performances in movies. This led me to appreciate his roles in 'The Ninth Configuration', 'W.', and 'Escape from L.A.', and seeing him in this TV movie, which I found as part of a 50-film Mill Creek collection called 'Nightmare Worlds', made me very excited, even though I hadn't previously seen any films directed by Burt Kennedy—though I was familiar with his name. Keach is certainly one of my favorite character actors working in film now or recently (since the nineteen seventies). Despite its extremely limited budget – featuring only seven children and two adults, a car, and a farmhouse – this movie, which combines elements of 'Children of the Corn', 'Deliverance', and 'Lord of the Flies', is truly worthwhile. It manages to blend atmosphere, hopelessness, and desperation into a captivating mix, and it’s suspenseful without relying on excessive violence or cheap tricks (based on the suggestive looks Keach's character, Jimmy, received from the oldest girl, Martha, I suspect any updated versions would exploit that plot point, or perhaps even hint at incest between the characters growing up), while also avoiding simplistic, predictable resolutions to the problems confronting not only the two captured adults but also the seven children themselves, who are facing bleak and hopeless circumstances. I enthusiastically suggest this film for families. It’s a movie parents and kids could watch together and discuss afterward, considering questions like ‘Why did these children feel it was necessary to have adult figures present?’ I hope more self-centered teenagers and young adults today would view this and consider how fortunate they are to have the parents and family that they do. That is one of the wonderful things about movies.

Source on TMDB