Beware! Children at Play


Beware! Children at Play is a 1989 horror film directed by Mik Cribben and distributed by Troma Entertainment.

Plot

The film follows the inhabitants of a small rural town whose children are disappearing at an alarming rate and whose adults are simultaneously being killed in a ritualistic fashion. It is revealed early on that the kids are being inducted into a cannibalistic cult that live in the woods. The cult is somehow inspired or influenced by the legendary tales from the Old English epic poem Beowulf. The title is known mostly because of its brutal depictions of violence against children. Most horror films avoid depictions of children being harmed or killed.

Cast

The film is one of Troma's most controversial titles due to its gruesome finale, a five-minute sequence where the townspeople brutally murder each of the cannibalistic children using firearms, pitchforks, and other assorted weapons. According to Lloyd Kaufman, when the film's trailer played at the Cannes Film Festival before a screening of Tromeo and Juliet, nearly half of the theatre walked out in protest.