Beware! Children at Play is a 1989 cannibal horror film directed by Mik Cribben and released by Troma.
Young Glenn Randall and his college professor father go for a camping trip in the woods. Everything goes fine until Glenn's father winds up getting caught in a bear trap; unable to move, he slowly dies of starvation and goes insane. Before he dies, he tells the boy to stay in the woods forever, and to feast off of those who come near him. The child complies, devouring his father.
Ten years later, sci-fi writer John DeWolfe (Michael Robertson) and his family drive to a small town. There, John meets up with his friend, sheriff Ross Carr. The two investigate a bizarre mystery in the town; children are disappearing, adults are quickly being found dead, and rumor has it that there is a boy going around the town, brainwashing children into becoming cannibals...
This film contains the following tropes:
- Antagonist Title: The title, referring to the cannibalistic children.
- Content Warnings: The cover of the film's DVD and VHS releases carry a warning about its graphic content, and that it shouldn't be watched by pregnant women or those with heart conditions.
- Creepy Child: And how.
- Darker and Edgier: Troma films are usually (darkly) comedic, but this movie is pretty serious compared to their usual titles.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- John should have thought better about bringing his family—including his own children—to a small town with an active child abduction problem.
- There's also numerous moments of mothers letting their children play outside unattended in the film, just waiting to be kidnapped.
- Downer Ending: John is murdered by Farmer Braun and his posse while trying to protect the children, and the group slaughters the children. John’s daughter Kara, however, has survived the massacre by hiding under her father’s corpse, and the final shot is of her creeping up on a rabbit with a knife, seemingly starting the film's plot all over again.
- Ghost Town: Made even ghostlier by the rapid disappearance of adults.
- Little "No": The Yankees hat boy moments before he gets his head blown up.
- Missing Child: Your child disappearing is already a pretty scary thought, but your child being potentially brainwashed into a cannibalistic cult is another.
- No Name Given: The town has no official name given to it. The video release calls it Tromaville, but this is never mentioned in the film, and it has no ties to any other existing Troma property.
- Your Head Asplode: One of the boys meets his demise in this way.
- Zombie Infectee: In his Tales From the Internet review, Justin Whang refers to the infected children starting to turn normal and being killed by the others as an inversion of this trope.
