Beware: Children At Play

Year:	1989
Country:	USA
Language:	English
Genre:	Action, Horror
IMDB:	IMDB Page
Rating:	3.5 Rate
Collection:	Seen It Wishlist
Community:	2 Have Seen, 1 Wishlist


Director	Mik Cribben
Selected Cast	Michael Robertson as John DeWolfe
	Bernard Hocke as Professor Randall
	Robin Lilly as Cleo Carr
	Lori Romero as Julia DeWolfe

Notes

A mentally-disturbed teenager kidnaps and brainwashes children into cannibalistic psychopaths - but not when the adults intervene.

Images

Comments and Reviews


alexlincs 9th May 2022		@Twistin forgot The Brood, saw it on TV, really unsettling. The Children has bad tropes from back in the day (oversaturation, jump editing, etc) but it got under my skin. I don't think it's any masterpiece, but it is way better than "Beware children at play". Bloody Birthday I think got a BR release recently. One I must check out.



Twistin 6th May 2022		I agree with all of those choices, Alex, except "The Children", (which I saw in the theatre and again later on home video, expecting to like it better the second time around), but it was just amateur-hour for me, my fresh view a rubber stamp of my first impression. "Mikey" was great, I thought, as well as the noted damned films. Another worthwhile effort, of course, is The Brood. I would also recommend, Bloody Birthday, which is from 1981 (and wearing a lot of that year's stylistic affectations), but it's not contrived and features some nice, creepy performances. Also. the cult classic, Devil Times Five is a low-budget, exploitation treat. Then there's the 2006 kid-zombie film, Wicked Little Things, which I have yet to see.



alexlincs 4th May 2022		Rated 5/10 This one is in the "killer kids" style of horror film like: Children of the Corn, The Damned series and Who Can Kill A Child?; all better films than this one. A group of children go missing in a forest and the adults investigate what is going on. They find their leader is a teenager and the children are murderous cannibals. It doesn't really do anything well. The script is half-baked with corny dialogue and an absurd plot were the humour doesn't land. As with most Troma films the acting is bad, but not the worst I've seen. It tries to merge a few tropes: the gory slasher movie, the supernatural mystery and the backwoods cannibal. It's not really worth your time despite a good ending. For killer kids films there's loads that do it better; Who Can Kill A Child? is the pick of the bunch with Mikey, These Are The Damned and The Children all being better choices. Versions: The Blu-Ray from Vinegar Syndrome has a superb print from 35mm negative. The film is unreleased in the UK, maybe Troma got cold feet due to Child's Play 3 being withdrawn. If it was to be released it would easily pass uncut at 18. 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?

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Tags: killer kids, Troma

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