6.3 | / 10 |
Users | 3.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Beth and Francis, a young married couple, venture to a beautiful, but highly remote, island. Beth is pregnant and the two are hoping to enjoy their last vacation before their baby is born. Once there, they notice that while there are plenty of children present, the adults all seem to be missing. Initially attributing this to the after effects of a recent festival, they quickly realize something far more sinister is at play
Starring: Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Vinessa Shaw, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Gerardo Taracena, Alejandro AlvarezHorror | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.24:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.20:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Who, or what, is Makinov? Most film directors toil for years before they even get the chance to hope to see their name as a possessive before the film’s title, and yet Come Out and Play is Makinov’s first entry in the film sweepstakes, and he’s already coming out a winner —at least as far as billing goes. The actual film is another matter entirely. While there are a number of elements in Come Out and Play that work—albeit fitfully—the entire enterprise is so hackneyed and ill conceived (no pun intended, considering a major plot point is feral, perhaps possessed, children), that most directors, at least the sensible ones with some history in the industry, would have opted for that quasi-anonymous epithet, “An Alan Smithee Film”. Not so, Makinov, evidently a Russian-American expat who has made a name for himself (in a manner of speaking) by appearing masked on YouTube, wearing what might be termed the male version of a burka. Some cynics might be tempted to say something like, “You’d hide your face, too, if you had foisted a film like Come Out and Play on an unsuspecting public”. 1976 and 1977 saw two similar, if disparate, properties arrive, both of which can perhaps be traced as the forebearers of Come Out and Play, the Spanish film Who Can Kill a Child? and Stephen King’s Children of the Corn. In both of these pieces, an unsuspecting couple wanders into an isolated landscape ruled over by marauding children (I am tempted to joke about any number of road trips I’ve taken with my family, but I digress). Makinov obviously had Who Can Kill a Child? most in his rear view mirror as he made his film (the credits actually cite the source novel which inspired the Spanish film), but unlike the Spanish effort, Makinov doesn’t invest any of his outing with even an ounce of subtext or meta meaning. What we have is a series of showdowns between a desperate couple and a bunch of kids who just are not behaving. Unfortunately, in this instance, time outs are probably a useless stratagem.
Come Out and Play is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of New Video Group, Cinedigm and Flatiron Film Company with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.24:1 ( a somewhat unusual aspect ratio, for those who care about such things). Makinov lensed this film as well as directing and writing, and his HD cinematography is rather artful a lot of the time, especially in the brightly lit island scenes, which offer significant pop and some really brilliantly saturated colors. Makinov hasn't color graded this outing over aggressively, but it does appear he's played with contrast quite bit, either pushing or pulling it as he sees fit. That means that some sun dappled scenes tend to glow with slightly blooming whites or, more typically, some of the dark scenes are extremely murky with what one assumes is intentional crush. The long segment where Francis and Beth finally find a car and try to get away does seem to have been color graded, albeit only to desaturate the image (see the screenshot catching an aerial view of much of the island for a good example). Other than these anomalies where it can be slightly compromised, fine detail is commendable, especially in the film's many close- ups. The biggest problem with this high definition presentation is recurrent stability problems, including a quasi-motion judder issue that crops up repeatedly during pans and which can be quite bad at times.
Come Out and Play features DTS-HD Master Audio mixes in both 5.1 and 2.0 formats. The surround mix has no notable immersion, though in a kind of unusual way. The island is largely deserted, and so surround activity gives us great ambient environmental information where not a lot is happening. Instead we get hints of sonic activity in the distance, and in this regard, the 5.1 mix offers some surprising nuance and aural depth of field. There are some typical uses of low frequency foley effects to subtly up the anxiety level, especially as things become more claustrophobic in the film's final sequences. The minimal dialogue is presented very cleanly, and dynamic range has a few bursts of energy from some of the violence, including some gun shots.
Make no mistake about it, Makinov has talent. But this multi-hyphenate also might have a bit of an ego, or at least a control, problem. He is in charge of everything here, kind of like a younger, hipper Tyler Perry, and one almost expects, as I've mentioned about Perry in previous reviews, for Makinov to be running the craft services table as well (and who knows, he might have). Come Out and Play has a notable mood of oppression, and its two actors try to do what they can with what amounts to a kind of Groundhog Day-esque repeat of the same encounter over and over again. The best moments of this film are the final fifteen or so minutes, when the two actors get to really devolve into hysteria as careening violence explodes all around them. But Come Out and Play ends up feeling kind of relentlessly silly rather than disturbing or even scary most of the time. Maybe Makinov and Tyler Perry could work on something like Madea Becomes a Zombie. I'd probably even pay to see something like that.
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