Please Don’t Feed the Children arrives with the weight of its director’s surname and the scrappy determination of independent cinema. Destry Allyn Spielberg’s post-apocalyptic thriller attempts to carve out fresh territory in the well-trodden wasteland of viral outbreak narratives, and while it stumbles through some familiar beats, there’s enough raw ambition here to suggest a filmmaker worth watching.
The premise hooks immediately: a world where a mysterious virus has turned society against its youngest members, forcing children underground while the remaining adults patrol with military precision. It’s a clever inversion of typical zombie fare; instead of the infected being the monsters, it’s the fear of infection that creates the real horror. Mary (Zoe Colletti) emerges as our guide through this fractured landscape, her opening voiceover painting a picture of systematic persecution that feels uncomfortable, but in an alternate-universe way.
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This review dissects the film’s guts like Clara’s basement buffet. Major plot points and that deliciously ambiguous ending is served up. You’ve been warned.
The Underground Railroad of Childhood Survival
What Please Don’t Feed the Children gets right is its exploration of survival dynamics among the displaced. The makeshift family unit that Jeffy (Dean Scott Vazquez) has assembled feels lived-in, despite some questionable production choices regarding their suspiciously pristine appearance. These kids have developed their own ecosystem of trust and betrayal, and when Mary disrupts their carefully balanced world, the resulting tension crackles with authentic desperation.
The film’s strongest moments come from these intimate character beats, Jeffy’s protective instincts toward his crew, the casual way they’ve normalized their underground existence, and Mary’s haunted references to her lost sister Lily. Colletti brings a weathered vulnerability to Mary that anchors the more outlandish elements, while Vazquez manages to make Jeffy both childlike and prematurely wise.
However, the narrative stumbles when it shifts from survival thriller to backwoods horror. The transition feels jarring, as if two different films were awkwardly spliced together. The kids’ decision-making becomes frustratingly naive; for a crew that prides itself on expertise, they fall for Clara’s (Michelle Dockery) obvious trap with all the savvy of tourists in a slasher film.
Michelle Dockery’s Maternal Nightmare
When Please Don’t Feed the Children finds its footing again, it’s largely thanks to Dockery’s committed performance as Clara. The Downton Abbey alumna embraces the unhinged maternal figure with theatrical relish, transforming what could have been a stock “crazy lady” into something more interesting, but only just. Her Clara isn’t just replacing her dead daughter; she’s attempting to rewrite the entire narrative of loss in a world gone mad. But we’ve seen this ploy before. If you need a reminder, think Pet Sematary / The Deep End of the Ocean / The Tall Man.
The film’s production history adds an interesting meta-layer to its resource scarcity and survival themes. Reports of payment delays and crew struggles during the New Mexico shoot echo the desperation of its characters, making the indie hustle feel more authentic. There’s something poetic about a film exploring post-apocalyptic scarcity being made under actual constraints.
When Ambition Outpaces Execution
The third act’s descent into creature feature territory undermines much of the psychological groundwork. Clara’s husband-turned-monster feels like a concession to genre expectations rather than an organic story development. The zombie transformation sequences, while competently executed on what was clearly a limited budget, lack the emotional weight of the earlier character work.
Giancarlo Esposito’s appearance as the investigating officer provides a welcome dose of gravitas, even if his role feels somewhat disconnected from the main narrative. His scenes with Dockery crackle with tension, suggesting what the film might have achieved with more focus on the psychological horror rather than the literal monsters.
The Ambiguous Bite of Independent Cinema
Please Don’t Feed the Children succeeds most when it trusts its central concept, that in a world where children are seen as diseased, the real sickness is societal fear and prejudice. The film shows how quickly civilization can turn on its most vulnerable members, resonating with modern anxieties about othering and scapegoating.
The cinematography by Shane Sigler maintains a clean, almost clinical aesthetic that contrasts effectively with the underground world these characters inhabit. While some might argue the kids look too polished for their circumstances, there’s something to be said for avoiding the typical “apocalypse grime” that often substitutes for character development in similar films. These kids are clean and do their hair in the morning.
That ambiguous final of “Please Don’t Feed the Children”, with a shot of Jeffy’s potential infection, works better than it should, leaving audiences to decide whether hope or horror awaits these survivors. It’s the kind of ending that indie horror does best, trusting viewers to engage with uncertainty rather than providing easy answers.
- Cast: Michelle Dockery, Zoe Colletti, Andrew Liner, Dean Scott Vazquez, Regan Aliyah, Emma Meisel, Joshuah Melnick, Vernon Davis, Giancarlo Esposito
- Director: Destry Allyn Spielberg
- Writer: Paul Bertino
- Distribution: Tubi
- Release Date: June 27, 2025 (US)
- Review by: Mother of Movies
- Listen to a podcast on Spotify by Tomb of Terrors w/old Man Brad about this film.
- For more horror that has children in it: Handling the Undead / Exterritorial / Rita / The Beast Comes at Midnight
To Watch this Post Apocalyptic Horror With Children, Streaming Options Below
Please Don't Feed the Children
Director: Destry Allyn Spielberg
Date Created: 2025-06-27 13:25
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Pros
- Apocalypse, if that' what you're into
Cons
- Storyline posed too many frctures
- Predictable
