Playground

Horrific doesn't even come close.

I went in not knowing what to expect and from all descriptions and synopses I read, there was no indication of the brutality I was in for.

This thing starts innocently enough, but trust me, it is the farthest thing from innocent on the planet.

Worth a watch? I don't know. It wasn't hard to sit through the first hour, but after that things went sideways very quickly and the last 20 minutes was possibly the toughest piece of film I've ever sat through.

As another reviewer put it, I'm glad I had the opportunity to watch it, but I'll never ever watch it again. Chilling.

This film was loosely based on the real life kidnapping and brutal torture/murder in England, of 2-year old James Bulger in 1993...by two 10-year old boys. The end footage of the CCTV video, of the two boys walking with the child, is really how it happened and the rest of the movie, although filmed at a distance, depicts the horrible things they did to this poor boy. He was beaten, tortured, sodomized and bludgeoned to death. More details surrounding the case can be found with a simple internet search... RIP precious James...

Here's another rambling, mess of a review.

I've seen every disturbing movie that exists except for two famous/infamous films that we all know. With that qualification, this movie is at least in my top ten sick-to-my-stomach films I've ever seen.

I like to go into movies knowing as little as possible about them. I watched this movie based on a one or two sentence description. It could have been a short film for all I knew (no duration was listed). Imagine my surprise at what I found. It was the perfect storm. I suppose I'm lucky. Since I watch films hoping to actually feel something, I won the lottery. I can only hope that some of you view this movie as I did, with no preconceptions or ideas of what to expect. After everything that we have seen, this is what many people search for; this feeling of being utterly stunned.

At this moment, there are four reviews. Against all IMDb odds, all four are accurate, valid, and, for the most part, spoiler-free. This film is art. How many filmmakers would love to be able to make the audience feel as terrible as I feel after watching this movie? I'm sure most horror movies try, but how many are successful? You can't just show crazy violence and expect this reaction. Some might portray some graphic or gruesome act that might make you look away or cringe, but not the gut-punch of this movie.

Well done, movie making people.

I'm glad I had the chance to watch this one time. I never want to watch it again.

Well, were do I even begin...

For starters, yes, the film becomes quite disturbing in the end, but the build up before the disturbing part is very slow and kinda goes nowhere. I guess the point of 3/4 of the film was to introduce us the kids, to show that they are basically usual children, doing children's stuff while being cruel at times. That's the whole premise of the 'Playground' as I see it - sometimes (seemingly) perfectly normal kids can do awful things. And they do, sadly.

The very slow build up is actually fine with me. I haven't seen a lot of Polish films, let alone the modern ones, so it was interesting to see how fellow Eastern Europeans live. The cinematography is just competent, but that's good enough and acting is surprisingly good, especially for such young kids. Basically there's 3 main characters: Gabrysia - a girl from a wealthy family, an exemplary student, yet a bit social awkward, Szymek - a boy from a somewhat poorer family, popular in school and Czarek - a boy from a lower-class family. We follow them throughout the day, witnessing them doing daily routine and having anger issues, and then the climax happens. Or what seems to be a climax at first. Then the film pulls out a twist and hits you on your head with the real one. Hope it doesn't count as a spoiler.

I like how the final scene was shot: you witness the events through surveillance cameras or from a distance. You already suspect what's about to happen, you don't want it to happen, yet feel all the more helpless, observing it from afar. The final minutes will most likely make you shudder, and it's really a testament how you don't have to go full gore to invoke strong repulsive emotions.

At the end, it would have made for a great short film: in this current form it might be a tad too sluggish. The plot twist feels kinda cheap, and the finale sort of rolls out of nowhere, but maybe it was the whole point. The violence for no reason feels all the more terrifying, especially done by children. 'Plac Zabaw' is not perfect, but worth your time if you're interested in Eastern European cinema or you from the 'disturbing movies' crowd, even though it's not the most disturbing flick by far.