Come Out and Play

I really wanted to like this remake of Spanish cult classic, Who Could Kill a Child (1975) AKA Island of the Damned. However the movie is so flat it becomes hard to sit thru since I knew the outcome from the very beginning. As for the acting? There was a reason the female lead of the original, Prunella Ransome, won the Best Actress award from the Sitges International Horror Film festival. Oh well, if you never saw the original, you might like this thriller. Keep in mind, it's not as fast paced as most recent horror thrillers. You might enjoy the build-up. Better yet, look for the original on The Dark Sky DVD label. Then you will see true fear.

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 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.

Well, I neither read the book, nor saw the old film. But I find this theme is very interesting and at the end of the watch I kind of disappointed. Of course it is a low budget film, which involves little kids in a bad light, but that does not mean they should completely censor the violence. I'm disappointed with those serious avoidance which very essential for a film like this. I agree the children performing such act should not be shown, but the theme was promised something and delivered nothing. On that perspective anyone would be frustrated if they came here to see a good thriller.

So you can call it a horror-thriller for the families, that's how it looks. It is the story of an American couple with the seven months pregnant visits a tourist island destination in Mexico and soon finds the town is deserted. While looking for other souls, they are targeted by those who were the reason for the scenario of the island. Then begins the run and chasing game, and how it all ends revealed with a tiny twist.

As I feared the film failed to impress me, but there might be a few who would enjoy it better than me. So all I'm saying is just skip it if you're seeking 'Hatchet' kind of film, this is no way near to that. For a 30-35 years ago film, it might have worked better, but this is an outdated story to take place in the present world. The theme was fantastic, but I just wanted a different story and upgraded with the new stuffs. Though I must appreciate the director who has done multiple task for this film to happen. Finally, I want to clear that it is not a bad film of the year or decade or ever, but just too soft for its genre, that's all.

5/10