"Come Out and Play" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 5
 

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Re: "Come Out and Play" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 5
 

This is my favorite subset choice so far.

Re: "Come Out and Play" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 5
 

Hey, does anyone know who made this film?? ;)

Re: "Come Out and Play" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 5
 

Here's what I wrote about Come Out and Play when I watched it for the first time back in June:

Remake of Who Can Kill a Child? (which was released in America by American International with the rather generic yet strangely intriguing title of Island of the Damned) sticks pretty closely to the original film (and, I suppose, the novel upon which both are based) but increases the gore factor a bit. The plot in a nutshell: a man and his pregnant wife rent a boat for a few days and take it to an island off the coast of Mexico. Upon arriving, they find that the island seems strangely deserted. The only people that they see are children…and soon, they find out why. I can’t help but think that Stephen King saw the original film and kinda/sorta based “Children of the Corn” on it, but I could be wrong. Still, there are some pretty big similarities in the plots. While this new version doesn’t do anything better than the earlier film, I really quite liked its jarring, atonal score. Worth a watch.

I haven't watched it yet today, but if I have any new thoughts about it after I do, I'll come back and post about them.

Re: "Come Out and Play" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 5
 

That is weird...

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2013/03/2...ay-diego-luna/

http://horrorcultfilms.co.uk/2013/03...-out-and-play/

http://horrorcultfilms.co.uk/wp-cont...03/makinov.jpg

Re: "Come Out and Play" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 5
 

That's interesting, but when your only directorial credit to date is a remake that stays very close to the original movie, perhaps you should lay off talking as if you are some cinema revolutionary.

Which brings me to what I was going to say about the film in the first place. I basically liked the film, but I did prefer the original. This new version didn't really do anything new aside from a few scenes of extra gore. I just would have liked to see something a little bit different in the story, something that made me think, "Oh, this is why they remade this movie." Instead, it just made me wonder when Who Can Kill a Child? will be released on Blu-ray.

I know I may sound harsh, but I didn't dislike the movie. If I had seen this version first, I'm sure I would have been much more enthusiastic about it.

Re: "Come Out and Play" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 5
 

Haven't seen the original, but this was probably one of my least favorite films on the movie of the day list yet. It kind of just dragged along until the last ten minutes and then picked up. Was funny watching the lead guy just wrestle a bunch of kids, but there just wasn't any emotion there. As a guy, you think he would be cursing and damning these kids and the kids would have smiles and go after him, wanting to see him dead. Then the whole, kill first, ask questions later from the police. Not something I would watch again.

Re: "Come Out and Play" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 5
 

That pretty much sums up my feelings.

Although the one thing I think this succeeded in doing over the original is you weren't actually rooting for the wife's demise. There was 90% less tripping, whining, screaming and just altogether clueless behavior on her part.

Re: "Come Out and Play" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 5
 

I agree that the last half helps save this (Did a bit of daydreaming within the first 35 minutes)

But I do admit, this movie did provide me with the most stomach-turning moment I've yet to experience in this marathon: The snot dangling off that one father's nose.

Re: "Come Out and Play" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 5
 

I hate it when movies act like it should be suspenseful that the characters can't figure out the mysterious events surrounding the publicized premise. For the first 30 minutes the camera leers over the couple as they make excuses or act clueless as if no one seeing this suspects the kids are homicidal; cut to the chase - we know what's happening on the island.

It makes me wonder what I would do if I came to a totally deserved town; I'm sure I'd resort to increasingly more drastic behavior - entering businesses, people's homes, frantically screaming, calling 911 or equivalent, etc instead of calmly walking around in the middle of the street.From one extreme to the other. While it was effective, the remake substitutes brutality in the place of weighty/emotional acting. Maybe if the "heroes" could emote better the suspense would have been thicker; when they discover the old man victim they act ridiculously calm and level headed.

When will Who Can Kill a Child? come out on blu-ray? Totally overdue.

Re: "Come Out and Play" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 5
 

I'm glad I saw this remake first then. That sort of stuff is my biggest pet peeve in horror films.
I agree that the first parts were a bit slow, but trying to figure out where I knew that actor from keep me into it. Once they were on the island and knew something was really off, I was hooked.

And that snot string was a nice touch. I wonder if it was scripted? Kind of cool to see real life 'snafus' show up as incidental moments on film sometimes.

Re: "Come Out and Play" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 5
 

I haven't seen the original so don't have that to compare it to. I found this to be a pleasant surprise and enjoyed it a lot despite its flaws at times. I usually hate child violence in horror movies but I was able to look past it in this one because I enjoyed how different the story was from what I have seen in the horror genre since I haven't seen the original. I also thought the scenery was beautiful and liked the music although it was way overused haha.

Re: "Come Out and Play" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 5
 

I had a lot of problems with this movie and the more I think about it, the less I like it. It wasn't the violence against kids thing. I loved it when he finally started wacking the shit out of the little bastards which came way too late.

This movie obviously wants to be taken seriously. Then why have your main characters act like complete and utter buffoons during the entire picture? Why the desperation to get to this island? Why the hell are you vacationing in a foreign country with a VERY pregnant wife? And you even left your other kids at home? Why act so non-nonchalant when you get to this crazy island and a blind man can see something is terribly wrong? And once on the island, EVERY decision they make is dumb. Every decision made by these two fools goes beyond normal human rationality. I can accept a lot with horror movies. Hell, you have to in able to enjoy this genre. But this movie asks you to accept way above and beyond.

The other major issue I have with this movie is that the kids did not intimidate me in the slightest. I have a serious issue with kids in horror movies. They creep me out for whatever reason. Always have. These kids never once left me feeling dread or creeped out. You want to see intimidating kids...go rent Eden Lake and then come back and tell me the kids in Come Out And Play scare you.

So this movie left me flat. They never explain the kids reasons for going batshit but that doesn't really bother me. It bothers me when you add all the other stuff from above that I am supposed to accept though. Two good things about the movie...the husbands wailing and sobbing when his wife dies. That honestly seemed real. And him beating the shit out of the little snots for a few minutes.

The only good thing that can come out of watching this movie is that I found out that it is a remake from you guys and I plan to check out the original movie. I like the premise but the delivery in this version was poor.

My rating: ** out of *****

Oh yeah, and I guess the women's fetus decided to kill her because she said that the little girl touched her and I guess transferred "adult hate" to the fetus??? Wha???? I could be wrong because by that point I was already cold to the movie (since it was near the end), so maybe someone here can let me know if I missed something or if that was open to interpretation?

Re: "Come Out and Play" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 5
 

Really? One can see that in pretty much every horror film, but I thought it was much less than usual in this film. It was a tiny island, I wouldn't have been too worried those first few minutes either. And what's wrong with traveling at 7 months pregnant? Many people work full time or travel up until the due date.

Once they knew crap was going down what could they have done much differently?He knew he had no fuel and that the kids likely had control of his boat or dock anyway. I think hindsight is always 20/20 when confronted with bizarre emergent situations. Most of us would be much stupider that this couple was.

And on the two other kids at home; that's the best way to travel! But I sort of got the feeling that the other two kids may have been miscarriages or the like.

Re: "Come Out and Play" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 5
 

Them acting oblivious lasted much longer than the first few minutes of their arrival. You can't honestly tell me you would act as clueless as these bozos even looking at it from a hindsight point of view. I could sit here and go through every dumb move they make but that would honestly take too much time and effort for such a bad movie.

Nothing is wrong to travel when pregnant. My wife worked every day until the day she gave birth. But taking your very pregnant wife not to another state but another country for vacation? And then insisting on visiting a remote island. Just fucking stupid. Unless it is an emergency, that is just asking for trouble.

And the other two kids...are you saying he had a conversation with a miscarriage? He did talk to at least one of his children on the phone. Now THAT would be a horror movie. :lol:

Re: "Come Out and Play" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 5
 

That's in the prequel, Come Out and Play Harder: Electric Afterbirth.

Re: "Come Out and Play" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 5
 

I was under the impression they were scouting that island for a potential new home. He kept asking her what she thought of the place like they might end up moving there when the baby is born. Am I the only person who felt this way? There was something that didn't add up, like the husband desperately trying to find a boat to the island, when he got back to the hotel and told his wife she was very relieved, like she couldn't believe he pulled it off. If this was an ordinary vacation, wouldn't they have made better arrangements before hand? Also, the husband knew they wouldn't have enough fuel to return, what was that about? It's like he knew they'd be stranded there and hoped she would fall in love with it while they were there.

Re: "Come Out and Play" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 5
 

I agree that something seemed off regarding their motivations for visiting the island. It was not made clear at all.

As for the gas thing, I got the impression that he may not have heard the guy say that he would need to refuel to return. I could be off on that, though.

Re: "Come Out and Play" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 5
 

He definitely heard the guy. He just kind of pooh-poohed it.

Re: "Come Out and Play" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 5
 

I think he just figured that fuel was obviously (normally) available for sale on the island and he'd get some.

Re: "Come Out and Play" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 5
 

I was practically cheering when this finally happened:

Re: "Come Out and Play" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 5
 

If this had been set in modern america then typical kids would be too busy drinking slurpees and playing on smart phones; I wish someone would set up a real re-make of Who Could Kill a Child? / Island of the Damned to reflect the world today... although that might not end up being as tense.

One thing that's slightly odd is how third world or rural the vibe from the kids feels - muted colors, older designed houses, etc; probably not very representative of actual Mexico.

With school shootings, etc a reasonable update could be interesting because some of the cautionary fantasy of Who Could Kill A Child? has become more a reality so the themes here need to evolve beyond the 1970s. Some areas of America are probably scarier at night with better armed childs than what is shown here.

Re: "Come Out and Play" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 5
 

Yeah, that's likely. I thought *maybe* he didn't hear since he only repeated the second part of what the guy said. Plus, he didn't seem too worried about fuel while on the island.

It probably depends on what areas you're talking about. I live right on the border, and some of the colonias here on this side of the border would shock you: no sewage, dirt floors. You don't realize how poorly some people, even here in the United States, still live.

Re: "Come Out and Play" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 5
 

Also, I'm proud that I watched this entire movie without getting the Offspring song stuck in my head.

Re: "Come Out and Play" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 5
 

Well, I watched the original version of this movie Who Can Kill A Child (1976) and have to say it has all the problems the remake has (especially since the remake is basically a shot for shot copycat). While the original is a little more fleshed out and has a little more exposition, it is still hampered by the people acting like fools but most importantly, the children just aren't creepy or scary.

Good idea. Terrible delivery on both flicks.

Re: "Come Out and Play" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 5
 

I guess that the only other thing that I'd like to add to the discussion is that I like the way that the majority of the film takes place during the day. I think that Come Out and Play is one of the few films (the only other one that I can think of is the original version of And Soon the Darkness) to be able to pull off a growing sense of dread and unease during broad daylight.

Re: "Come Out and Play" Reviews/Discussion - 2014 Horror Challenge: Day 5
 

I was under the impression they had lost the previous 2 babies by miscarriage. The LOOK he gave the old woman.