Movie Review – Come Out and Play (2012)

A couple take a vacation to a remote island – their last holiday together before they become parents. Soon after their arrival, they notice that no adults seem to be present – an observation that quickly presents a nightmarish reality.

Remaking the 1976 cult classic Who Can Kill a Child?, the “mysterious” Makinov does a pretty basic ‘cut and paste’ job of the original movie into a 21st century setting with Come Out and Play. While many have labelled this a failure for following the Gus Van Saant Psycho approach, I think there is some good to be found in this remake.

For starters, Makinov creates a really good atmosphere with a foreboding sense of doom that is genuinely unnerving and some of his shot choices of the children watching are very unsettling. The music score compliments this very well and Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Vinessa Shaw are likeable as our leading couple. All the elements for the movie are right – so what’s the problem?

The story centres around Francise and his heavily pregnant partner Beth who, while on their travels, stumble upon a town that is bereft of adults and overrun by children. As the day goes on, it suddenly dawns on the couple that these kids are not all above board as they witness them killing innocent adults without mercy or remorse.

Trying to review Come Out and Play without comparing it to Who Can Kill a Child? is near impossible as Makinov has more or less made a carbon copy. The story runs the same, the deaths are the same, the characters are the same and the tone is virtually the same. One could claim that this was a gigantic waste of time, but I feel a lot of the movie’s criticism have been aimed at Makinov himself as a person rather than the film itself.

Because even for all of it’s ‘control+c, control+v’ elements, I really enjoyed Come Out and Play. As I said earlier, it is quite unnerving and that all boils down to one stroke of genius – we’re never given a reason for why this is all happening. Unlike the kids from Children of the Corn who follow a religious zealot, the young’uns of Come Out and Play just woke up at the same time and started killing people. Just like that. This terrifying prospect adds a lot of tension to the movie as now these kids have no motivation or reason – much like the zombies of Night of the Living Dead. And, unlike the tired zombie formula, Come Out and Play manages to get a few good scares due to its characterisation of the monster.

Running in at nearly 2 hours long, Makinov never lets a scene slide by with a quick glance over. Everything feels like it gets all the time it needs which again helps the tension and pacing. Moss-Bachrach and Shaw hold their own as the likeable couple very well and because you like them so much, you want to see them survive – something missing from most modern horror movies.

However, it sadly can’t escape the original movie. Come Out and Play didn’t try to do anything new to the Who Can Kill a Child? formula which does make it a fairly pointless exercise. Come Out and Play does highlight the pointlessness of remaking horror classics as you can either go the opposite direction and miss the point (A Nightmare on Elm Street) or you can carbon copy the original one and be worthless. Makinov does have a good horror movie in him, he just needs an original idea to show that.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★  / Movie: ★ ★ ★

Luke Owen is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors and the host of the Month in Review show for Flickering Myth’s Podcast Network. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.