Evil children make shitty antagonists.  It’s a lazy dichotomy to say, “Look!  The faces of the innocent and pure are doing horrible acts of violence!  HOW CAN THIS BE?”  But they shouldn’t be threatening to any adult.  You can’t be scared of anything you can dropkick.  Come Out and Play (a remake of the 1976 Spanish horror film Who Can Kill a Child?) tries to up the fear by having the children be a tiny, angry mob rather than a solo threat, but the film’s true potential lies in trying to provide a set of conditions where we can condone, and perhaps even enjoy, killing bad seeds.  Sadly, writer/director/shameless-self-promoter Makinov never wants to put in the hard work to meet this challenge.  Instead, he spins his wheels, makes half-hearted attempts at various subtexts, and is left with a wasted opportunity to do anything beyond The Birds but with kids.

Big Beach has culled an eclectic cast to play immortals in the adaptation of Marie Phillips’ Gods Behaving Badly: Christopher Walken (Zeus), John Turturro (Hades), Sharon Stone (Aphrodite), Edie Falco (Artemis), Phylicia Rashad (Demeter), Nelsan Ellis (Dionysus), Gideon Glick (Eros), Henry Zebrowski (Hermes), Rosie Perez (Persephone).  Movieline passes along the official synopsis:

The film tells the story of the Greek Gods, alive and well and living in a brownstone in New York City, as they cross paths with a young couple, Kate and Neil. The intersection of the Gods and the mortals threatens not only the couple’s budding relationship, but the future of everything else.

Alicia Silverstone and Ebon Moss-Bachrach will play the young couple.  Admittedly, this cast would be more impressive in a year that begins 199_.  Regardless, this sounds like a fun project.  Production begins this month in New York on Gods Behaving Badly, the directorial debut of Big Beach co-founder Marc Turtletaub.