Growing up, my introduction to the great hard-boiled work of Mickey Spillane was the TV series 'Mike Hammer', in which Stacy Keach was the ninth of the 11--so far--to portray the private eye. I was sad when the series was cancelled because he had been jailed for smuggling cocaine, but I always kept an eye out for his fine acting in the realm of cinema. This led to my great enjoyment of his work in 'The Ninth Configuration', 'W.', and 'Escape from L.A.', and when I saw that he was in this TV-movie, found in my 50-film Mill Creek pack, 'Nightmare Worlds', I was extremely enthused, though I had never seen any films by director Burt Kennedy, though I had heard of him. Keach is definitely one of my favourite character actors in contemporary or recent (post-1970) cinema. Though on a very low budget, with seven children and two adults, a car and a farmhouse, this 'Children of the Corn'-meets-'Deliverance'-meets-'Lord of the Flies' is really worth your time. It brings mood, despair and desperation together in a bewitching concoction, and is suspenseful, without resorting to gore or other gimmickry (judging from the lurid glances Keach's Jimmy got from the oldest girl, Martha, I think I can assume any modern-day remakes wouldn't pass up that plot-possibility, or possible incest between the coming-of-age characters), and at the same time, without resorting to cheesy, Hallmark-movie-of-t…

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