By Melissa Antoinette Garza
A little over a year ago, I saw the film Who Can Kill a Child (1976). I gave it a stellar review as it delivered in the same manner that most of the great horror classics of the 70s did. It had atmosphere, pace, great dialogue and excellent acting.
It was a disturbing little gem that followed a young couple travelling on vacation. They visit a small island where they encounter crazed children who murder every adult they come across.
When reasoning and running doesn’t work, it becomes clear that the only way to fight back is to kill the kids, which is no easy feat. Not only are they tough and seemingly enjoy their murder spree, but somehow they manage to keep an aura of innocence about them. This makes it nearly impossible for the couple to take their lives.
I highly suggest the original as it was extremely suspenseful, unexpectedly intelligent and well written.
When I heard a remake was in the works, I had mixed feelings. I thought a modernized version if done correctly could pack a punch and take a more intense approach. That said, I was concerned that if the focus was placed on making it too intense and over-the-top, it could turn into a torture porn flick with kids as the culprits. This was something I had no interest in wasting my time with.
Thankfully, the powers-that-be didn’t take the latter route, but they didn’t take the former either. Instead, we are left with a nearly identical revisit of the first. The main difference is that the moral dilemma facing the main characters in the original isn’t really relevant in the same way today.
Sometimes when films are remade, cultures and societal standards have changed. This can result in a plot element that may have shocked an older generation, but in modern times seems tame and old fashioned. The best example is in the dreadful Psycho (1998) remake. In the original, the character of Marion Crane was scandalous. Not only was she an embezzler, but she was also sleeping a married man. In 1960, this was bold and brazen.
When the 1998 remake came out, it was awful for many reasons, but a major flaw was that times had changed significantly. The elements that made Marion Crane the perfect victim and remarkably sympathetic despite her mistakes, no longer were relevant. The role of women had changed and therefore her behavior no longer made the impact she had on viewers impressive.
To a lesser degree, this is where Come Out and Play fails. In 1976, watching an adult murder a child was disturbing in itself. Today’s audience has seen it all, and sadly something of even this magnitude doesn’t shock the way it did nearly 40 years ago.
The ultimate decision to fight back the children was such a pivotal moment in the first adaptation; so much so that the movie was named after that thought process. In Come Out and Play the retaliation against the children doesn’t seem to carry the same weight as it did in the original.
In Come Out and Play, more time should have been put on the transition. Though the actual events and the story doesn’t differ from the original, the heart wrenching reactions and the turmoil and agony that was present in the original is absent.
To its credit, the film did try to compensate by showing more violent deaths near the conclusion. Still, there was something more innocent and therefore disturbing about the children in the original.
It’s so strange that a movie, which in many ways is identical to the original, delivers such a different tone, pace, and overall impression. Whereas the 1976 version had a few very distinct scenes that were creepy, this one did not. It failed to capture the feeling of dread and the darkness that Who Can Kill a Child was filled with.
There are a few very cool shots. In one scene, the children are all in a line and their sinister nature is clear. This too was done in the original, but unlike much else, it was just as effective in the remake.
Both movies are based on the novel El juego de los ninos, written by Juan Jose Plans. I have yet to read the book but am very compelled to see if there is an English version available. Thus far, I have only been able to find Spanish editions.
I wonder how much the book differs from the movies it spawned. I imagine it would be a good read.
In regards to the movie, I can’t really suggest the remake. It just doesn’t seem to offer anything that the original doesn’t already do better. The acting is fine and the characters are believable but the film just fails to engross the viewer the way that the original so easily was able to accomplish.
It would have made for compelling TV if the filmmakers had made a sequel rather than a remake. Picture this: our new couple travels all these years later to the same island where the couple in the original had been killed. There, our new couple encounter the children of those that had killed the characters from the original. The whole story could be based on the origins of the children’s reign and what happened to them driving them to murder. If certain avenues were explored, there could have been a great story to tell.
As it is, Come Out and Play is just an empty film with not much to offer.
Scared Stiff Rating: 4.5/10
