THREE MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT

There is an accident at a carnival which leaves Blair's mother dead, her father in a hospital bed, and herself in charge of the three younger children who establish a certain normalcy to the proceedings: a basement nearby filled with guns; a savage attack by two killer dogs; and her father's jumbled last words about a bomb, all ticktocking away. . . . The story is sheer scarehead nonsense but the youngsters are likable -- think of it as a kind of suburban Dexedrine.