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Strange Ones, The

Communicates through a child's eyes the problem of molestation. A little girl is rescued by the police who explain to her how to avoid dangerous situations and how to deal with them when they arise.


This movie is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives

Production Company: Davis (Sid) Productions
Audio/Visual: sound, B&W

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: Marysz - - August 13, 2005
Subject: Children in Danger
Another Sid Davis film in which vulnerable children wander in an urban-suburban landscape filled with menace. The film warns children about the strange ones, the films term for pedophiles. Karen lets a strange man buy her candy and gets in his car. In this dire cinematic world, children play alone in junkyards or shoot baskets in desolate concrete playgrounds where men lurk in the shadows, waiting for a right moment to move in on their prey. As in a similar Davis film, Boys Beware, we only briefly see a mother. In both films, the mothers are isolated in drab ranch houses and are the last to learn their child is missing. And the only men we see are either police officers or the pedophiles. Where are the fathers? In these communities without moorings the police department is the only institution capable of maintaining the social order.

Reviewer: Spuzz - - June 28, 2005
Subject: You're a strange one, Mr. Sid..
Another classic "Strangers Are Bad" film. Funny how all the Sid Davis films are essentially the same, eg, Don't hitchhike! Get down the license plate! Don't play in empty lots! In this one, the flourishes are that strangers are now, for whatever reason, called 'Strange Ones'. This time, the narrator is a female, she seems to be a police officer at the station (with a mighty great gun description poster on her back wall).
I just wonder at the people watching all of this and saying, "Culver City must be the pedo capital of the world".

Reviewer: dynayellow - - August 26, 2003
Subject: Chilling!
An effectively filmed short on the dangers of being abducted. Little kitsch appeal, this short reinforces the rules that children should know by heart in any era.

Nice sense of dread throughout. Yeesh. This gives me chills.

Reviewer: cashel - - August 25, 2003
Subject: unsolved disappearences
In south ausralia, these fears are only too real, Most parents worry about abduction and will not let their children roam freely,,,They remember the three children who were abducted from a busy beach area and two children from a crowded foootball arena..The five children have never been found and there are no clues.

Reviewer: Steve Nordby - - August 25, 2003
Subject: Sid's dangerous world
Another Sid Davis production about the dangers of being... well... human. But Karen's abductor needs a better car. Come on! A Corvair wagon? Where's the chase and shoot-out?

"The strange ones" are mentally ill but look just like us, so be afraid of everyone.

Reviewer: K.P. Lee - - August 24, 2003
Subject: Don't take candy from strangers. Ever!
"The Strange Ones" follows the grand tradition of many other Sid Davis movies. Karen is 8-years old and "every day, she passes this store with the wonderful candy counter." All is well, and the music is chirpy and cheerful. But then without warning, Karen accepts candy from a stranger (really!) and follows the stranger into a car. Only the heroics of the Culver City police department save Karen.

The topic here is pedophilia, with the pedophiles euphemistically called "strange ones." The narrator, a policewomen, states: "Most people in the world are good and nice, but unfortunately, there are some 'strange ones.' And these strange ones are sick, not sick with the cold or measles or anything like that, but sick in the mind. We call them MENTALLY ILL."

The world of Sid Davis is a harrowing place for children. Lurking in empty lots, playgrounds, and alleys are strange ones (with accompanying horror music---the soundtrack throughout the entire film is a hoot!). "The Strange Ones" follows a very similar formula as that other Sid Davis classic, "Boys Beware," and I consider it a classic example of Sid Davis's children-in-danger genre. This film is a must see!