Mik Cribben has been in the industry since the 1970s, working as a soundman or a camera operator. Like many at the time, he got his start working in the adult film industry and some B-movies. He worked on notable titles like Squirm, Eyes of Laura Mars, Nightmare, and blockbuster movies like Annie and Wall Street. At some point, Cribben was working with a guy who had made a low-budget horror film about a Vietnam veteran. The two were collaborating on a new project, but the director wanted to make it a studio film. Cribben commissioned his friend Fred Sharkey to write a new screenplay using the extra money from the collaboration. On a $200,000 – $300,000 budget, Cribben and company worked on what would become one of Troma’s more controversial pictures. In late 1989, Troma distributed Cribben’s only directorial effort, Beware: Children at Play.
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Synopsis
During a camping trip with his son, Professor Randall (Bernard Hocke) accidentally gets his leg caught in a bear trap. After he succumbs to his wounds and dies, his son Glenn (Eric Tonken) eats him and goes insane. Ten years later, John DeWolfe (Michael Robertson) is driving with his family to New Jersey to visit some old friends. Chief among them is Ross Carr (Rich Hamilton), the local sheriff, dealing with numerous reports of missing children. Meanwhile, local farmer Isac Braun (Mik Cribben) believes Glenn is still alive and taking their children to join his cult. It turns out that Glenn is indeed living, now calling himself Grendel (Danny McClaughlin), and has been brainwashing children. As the kids carve a path through the town, John and Ross try to figure out a peaceful solution. Will John be able to rescue the kids, or will the townsfolk deliver some vigilante justice?
Review
As a whole, Beware: Children at Play is a very flat and boring movie struggling to reach feature-length. While there are a few cheesy kills here and there, most of it is just dull scenes of meaningless dialogue. It doesn’t help that much of the acting is pretty uninspired, though I’m not expecting Oscar-worthy performances here. Some notable characters include a Bible salesman with a sailor’s mouth or a psychic who loves saying “dearie” a lot. There’s also Isac Braun, played by the director, wearing some unconvincing old man makeup with powder in his hair. But aside from that, most of the characters are pretty generic, and you’ll quickly forget who’s who. Honestly, it was difficult for me to keep up with what was happening, considering how dull it was. That is until the last five minutes when all hell breaks loose, and the film earns its notoriety.
As uninteresting as the rest of the movie is, the ending almost makes watching it worthwhile just for the carnage. What follows are five minutes of several child characters being shot down and killed in various ways. Kids get their heads blown off, stabbed with a machete, pinned to walls with pitchforks, and shot with arrows. Granted, kids getting killed in movies isn’t anything new, but the volume of child deaths is staggering. It makes sense that the trailer mostly has scenes from the last few minutes since they’re the most exciting. The ending almost warrants a viewing, but that requires sitting through so much uninteresting stuff to get there. Hardcore Troma fans will want to check this out, but otherwise, you can just watch the scene on YouTube. Overall, Beware: Children at Play is a dull experience that only gets interesting towards the end.
Buy Beware: Children at Play from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3mcwVmp.
