Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.5

Come Out and Play Blu-ray Movie Review

Children of the Corny.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 17, 2013

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 starts with a rather deliriously hallucinogenic sequence that seems to be taking place in some Mexican equivalent of Brazil’s Carnaval. Floats waft by, huge plastic flowers (or are they real?) briefly pop into view, and a number of outlandishly costumed folk frolic at the edges of the frame. A man stumbles through the madness—what exactly is going on? Unfortunately, as becomes something of a running element in the film, not much is ever explained. Ultimately, we meet two Americans, Francis (Ebon Moss-Bacharach) and his very pregnant wife, Beth (Vinessa Shaw). They’ve evidently found a gorgeous tropical island where they want to continue their vacation, and they’ve rented a little skiff to get there. Cue spooky music.

Some ardent television geeks may remember the very first The Twilight Zone episode, “Where Is Everbody?”, which found an increasingly desperate Earl Holliman stumbling through a deserted town, unable to find any other living human being. The typical Twilight Zone twist revealed that Holliman was actually an astronaut undergoing a rigorous isolation experiment to determine how well men in space would hold up under extreme conditions where they’d be alone for perhaps years at a time, and that everything that was happening was in fact occurring in the character’s mind. If only Come Out and Play had that facile of an explanation. Instead, Francis and Beth arrive at an admittedly beautiful island, only to be met by some glowering children playing on a dock. Cue spooky music.

As the couple begins to explore the island, they become more and more concerned—albeit incrementally, in one of the film’s most maddening gambits—when it doesn’t appear anyone, or at least any adult, is around. They catch glimpses of kids darting through abandoned alleyways, and occasionally hear some far off sounds of what sounds like playing, but that’s about it. It’s only when Francis finally sees a gaggle of youths pummeling an old man with rocks that he finally figures out something is horribly wrong. You already know the drill—cue spooky music.

The rest of Come Out and Play involves little more than an extended cat and mouse game, as Francis and Beth attempt to outrun and outmaneuver the vicious horde of children. Makinov never gives us any explicit information about what’s going on with the kids (did they collectively miss nap time?), aside from a few opaque comments made by one hapless survivor the couple comes across about midway through the film. To his credit, Makinov stages several scenes rather well, though the film has an almost comedic tendency to repeatedly show Francis and Beth slowly opening doors into darkened rooms, while, yes, spooky music plays.

Things get relatively more involving in the climax, when Francis and Beth find themselves barricaded in a room with no exit and kids are coming at them from every direction. Francis has already picked up an automatic rifle, but will he use it against these sweet faced, albeit vicious, tots? (Any parent out there who’s ever dealt with a recalcitrant child is going to be chanting, “Do it, Francis, do it!”) There’s one very effective little moment involving Beth’s unborn child as the film careens toward an apocalyptic finale. Let’s just say that, if in the words of a treacly if insanely popular song, children are our future, they may also be our demise.

Come Out and Play Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

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 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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.

Come Out and Play Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (1080p; 1:44)


• Deleted/Extended Scenes (1080p; 3:05)


• EPK (1080p; 4:56). Wow--a little truth in advertising for a change. This is two interview segments with the stars of the film, both of whom speak (not very articulately, unfortunately) about the film and offer a few clues about their mystery director Makinov.


• Making Of (1080p; 6:00) shows the stunt director getting the film's kids ready for some of the sequences, including teaching them how to deal with squibs.

Come Out and Play Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

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.