Beware! Children at Play (1989) dir. Mik Cribben, Troma Entertainment
This might be the worst thing Troma has ever done, at least until this point in their history.
Professor Randall (Bernard Hocke) and his son Glen (Eric Tonken) frolic in the woods. Oh, what a time they have, running and skipping, playing of the hide and go seek, at least until dear old papa steps in a bear trap. He insists to his son that help will surely come...but after several days he gives up the ghost and orders his son to eat him in order to survive. Apparently telling his son to get help or find a phone didn't occur to him.
Ten years pass. The DeWolfes John (Michael Robertson), Julia (Lori Romero), and daughter Kara (Jamie Krause) are visiting upstate to see their friends the Carrs, namely Sherrif Ross Carr (Rich Hamilton), his wife Cleo (Robin Lily) and their daughter Mary-Rose (Sunshine Barrett). The Carr family is in need of cheering up, as their oldest daughter Amy (Lorna Courtney) vanished some time ago. A passing bible salesman (Herbert Klinger) warns the DeWolfes to careful, as a bunch of people have been vanishing in the area. They don't see him getting mowed by someone armed with a sickle.
Mary-Rose quickly joins those who vanish. The Carrs are so distraught they hired a psychic. To the medium's credit she actually finds Mary-Rose fairly quickly, but she failed to sense that the girl has gone feral and is quickly torn apart by a group of children
Julia finds some kids in Kara's room and is quickly dispatched as well. Cleo tries to fight back but Glen, now calling himself Grendel (Danny McClaughlin) knocks her out and drags her off. John puts up a better fight, seeing that Amy is not only alive but now Grendel's woman. Sherrif Carr arrives but before he can progress this info some straggling kids kill him.
John manages to knock out Amy and forces her to lead him back to the kids but he's too late to save Cleo. Deputy Luke (Mark Diekman), now acting sheriff, decides to settle these kid's hash in a permanent fashion. Can John actually do anything?
Yeah, if this was better acted and had better effects this would be THE video nasty of the 1980s. Like, this could have been the film censors would have been holding up as the moral filth that would justify them shutting Troma down. As it stands we have community theater extras and a ton of Karo syrup but it's just gruesome enough to be memorable but not bad enough to scar the mind.
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