Juego de niños

Come Out and Play is basically a carbon copy of the original 1976 film Who Can Kill A Child? It was a lazy remake that didn't even try to attempt something different with the concept or reinterpret it. The film is a retread and a missed opportunity to breath new life into the killer kids subgenre. The film still manages to capture the unsettling dread, suspense, mysterious and creepy atmosphere and terrifying helplessness that made the original effective. The musical score was intense and heart pounding and made you feel like you were watching a living nightmare captured on celluloid. The elements that made it watch able is that the premise is still creepy and disturbing and the story is still effective and shocking. Come Out and Play is in the end though just another pointless remake with nothing remotely new to show or say.

The performances were solid for the most part but I thought the script was pretty weak with underdeveloped characters. The two leads were likable and did their best with little that they were given, but they just played the typical, token stranded tourists that waited too long to get the hell out of there. Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Vinessa Shaw play parents to be Francis and Beth, who take one last vacation before Beth is due to give birth to their child. They make a trip to a secluded island and realize too late that all of the adults are missing and the children left behind. The doomed couple soon discovers that the children are homicidal maniacs, with no explanation of how they got that way. We as viewers are just as baffled as the couple and there wasn't even a hint to how the children got that way. I think the main stars are talented performers, but are wasted here as the lackluster script raises more questions than answers.

Director, Makinov pretty much cut and paste here with no inspiration behind the proceeding. He knows the basics of a horror movie but weren't inventive with the elements; as a result there wasn't any moments of surprise because if you've seen the original you know the outcome. The director brought nothing new to the story.

Overall, it's an uninspired remake that's too faithful to the original and you might as well just rent the original because it's exactly the same right down to the ending. Both give effective chills, but there is no good reason for this remake to exist. Still there are far worse out there.

We're all familiar with the pack of demon children terrorizing the town stories. If you've been watching horror from any of the last few decades, you've probably come across this story before in a film. In this version, we have an American couple that go to a Spanish speaking island to be terrorized by a bunch of kids. Here are the facts of the movie: It takes a good 35 minutes before something finally happens. The subtitles are in white and the film takes place in the daytime… good luck with that. Kids are creepy! Seriously, when they're in packs, dirty and they think they're tough, it can be pretty intimidating. Especially cause your natural response is that you think you can't knock a kid out, it makes the whole premise pretty terrifying. The last 20 minutes of this film is bananas! Because this film ends in such a way I wasn't expecting, it makes it worth checking out. I found myself laughing, not because it is funny, but because it totally caught me off guard and it ended in a very "non conventional" way. If you're in the mood to see some dirty demon children ruin your idea of Mexican paradise, then check this one out.

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A very moderate film for all intents and purposes. A pregnant woman and her husband take a little trip to an isolated city... only to find no-one is about. This should be their cue to get the fudge outta there, but nope... they help themselves to some free groceries, drinks and hotel rooms. Then, the children arrive. A whole pack of them. And tear an old man limb by limb, right in front of the disturbed couple.

It's they who're responsive for the deaths of all the adults in town... because they just woke up that way. Hmph. And the grown-ups didn't fight back because... they're kids. Double Hmph. Regardless, our central pair must find a way out of this creche from hell, but they face even more danger from a being they could never have guessed...

And there I must stop, as that scene constitutes the only real shock moment. It's kinda demented in retrospect, but I'll take what I can. It's not a chore to sit through... who could possibly not find hordes of little 'uns, running amok with hammers and knives at least a bit diverting? But the turgid way it's directed and plotted sap a lot of life out of the can't-miss scenario, making it passable at best.

And if the ending is anything to go by, maybe it's time we beefed up our borders against asylum seekers even more... 5/10

'Come Out to Play' is about a nice young couple who take a romantic holiday to an island. On docking their boat, they find only children, but think nothing of it and proceed into town. However, although all shops are open, not one has an employee working. But they think nothing of it and start helping themselves to food from a café. They go for a walk round the town, but can't find anyone. But they think nothing of it and go to their hotel. However, upon arriving at their hotel, they don't find anyone there. But they think nothing of it and just carry on.

This must have something to do with Darwin's 'survival of the fittest' theory as these people are clearly too dumb to deserve to live.

Obviously, things finally start to go wrong at just over half way through the film when they finally realise that something is amiss. Then horrific stuff starts to happen, but, by this time, do we really care enough for these people? If you think you might, then give it a go. I, on the other hand, really couldn't see how they wouldn't have twigged sooner that this was not a place to take your holiday.

We knew that already didn't we? Seriously though: The movie tries to not pull any punches but does fall back on some horror movie clichés where the viewer will not be able to stop shaking his head. Now I haven't seen the original movie, but the concept itself is not completely original anymore anyway.

You don't have a big cast (if you don't count the many kids that are in this) so therefor it is very important to stay/stick with the few you have on board (no pun intended). But unfortunately they never really strike you or have you root for them. It's unfortunate because the journey they take and the allegories they try to play out never really fulfill their goal