Come Out and Play

Come Out and Play

Starring Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Vinessa Shaw, Daniel Cacho, Gerardo Taracena

Directed by Makinov

Francis (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and his wife Beth (Vinessa Shaw) decide to take a vacation to a small Mexican island while Beth is seven months pregnant.  Upon arriving on the island, they discover it's pretty much deserted, except for a bunch of children.  When they witness one of the kids killing one of the few adults on the island, they learn that the other adults have all been slaughtered by the children, who have fallen under some sort of illness, and they're next on the list.

Upon viewing this film, obvious connections to Stephen King's classic "The Children of the Corn" came to mind, as it seems it's pretty much the same thing, except taking place on a Spanish island, and there's no set child leader like Isaac was.  After seeing the film, I investigated and found that it's practically a shot-for-shot remake of the 1976 film "Who Can Kill a Child," which was based on a novel by Juan Jose Plans, neither of which I ever saw or read.

The film dragged on considerably, with pretty much nothing happening until the last third of the film.  The actors are the worst survivalists on the planet, as the husband often left the wife alone while he investigated, which always resulted in the wife being in danger.  Instead of leaving the island right away they continue to stay and investigate (although, in their defense, if they had left the island right away the film would've lasted ten minutes...although sitting through the rest was extremely torturous).  

The only glimmer of light was the ending, when the main character goes all Rambo on the children, which leads to a somewhat satisfactory ending, but not enough to justify sitting through the film before then.

My Rating: C-