Island of Misfit Psychopaths

While we're talking about remakes, what happens when you remake a film that relatively few people have heard of?

Come Out and Play is that remake.

Come Out and Play is a remake of the 1976 Spanish film Who Can Kill a Child?.  The original film was a statement on the effects of war on children.  We're not quite sure what's happening in the remake.

Francisco and Beth (who is very pregnant) are out to enjoy their last vacation in Mexico away from the kids before their third child is born.  They rent a boat after a huge carnival and head out from mainland to a remote island for some fun in the sun.  The island is inhabited by children.  Lots of children.

The lack of adults around should probably have given them some kind of clue that they shouldn't be there because, yep, you guessed it, these kids are fucking crazy.

Shadow-puppets of DOOOOOM!

No explanation is given for the kids' behavior.  They just point and giggle when an adult is slaughtered.  One adult is beaten with a cane.  Another is stabbed multiple times and has a chuck of cement dropped on his head.  In the film's climax, Beth's unborn child is somehow affected by whatever is turning the ankle-biters into LITERAL ankle-biters and kills her from the inside.

Nanny-Nanny-Boo-Boo!

I kind of have mixed feelings about this one.  On the one hand, it's shot beautifully and Ebon Moss-Bacharach's performance is stirring.  On the other hand, there's no fucking plot.  It really seems like the director (Makinov, who, per Dread Central, is apparently a weird-ass motherfucker, what with wearing a mask all throughout shooting) just said, "Hey, let's get some kids to kill stuff."

However, while there's no meat to this movie other than the dead bodies, the suspense and tension are here in spades.  This is, in large part, due to the ethereal score with it's theremin drones and the fact that you know something's wrong the minute you meet the kids for the first time.  NONE of these kids speak a word, by the way, which makes them creepier.

SAY SOMETHING!!!

One thing to remember, though, is that the movie isn't about the "why", it's about the reaction of the protagonists.  How are they going to get out and how can they do it without hurting children?

Frankly?  I say fuck it.  The minute a rugrat comes after me with a sharp object, I'ma bust out a smackdown.

This is another one of those "Your mileage may vary" movies.  I kinda liked it (probably due to my fascination with killer kids) but I say give it a watch and decide for yourself.