Come Out and Play

What a waste of time and money to remake a film exactly like the first one..!!! Especially when the original wasn't even exactly a big hit... duh .. If you had planned on expanding, adding or enhancing it,,then yes otherwise what was the point ?

The two main leads like the original were basically brain dead from the start. Nothing they did or came up with made any sense. And to add they were not even likable.. The premise that a pregnant woman can not exert some energy without endangering the child is also ancient crap... I know pregnant women that jog, exercise, dance and work right up to the 9th month..

Only reason I gave this steaming pile of manure a 2 instead of a 1 was the island scenery made me feel warm on a cold day...

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.

'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.

This film had the right idea but the execution did not work. Kids getting shot in the head is a little disturbing. Maybe is something in the film was actually scary more people would have like it.

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.