Common Sense Media Review
By Jennifer Green
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Gory violence, jump scares, language in creepy horror tale.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 16+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Please Don't Feed the Children
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
Mary (Zoe Colletti) is on her own and trying to reach the border at the start of PLEASE DON'T FEED THE CHILDREN. Her sister has been killed by authorities hunting down children, who are carriers of a deadly virus that turns people into cannibals. One day Mary meets a group of other young people her age who are also just trying to survive. If they can all get to the border, they might have a chance of finding a secret tunnel to a safer place. After a robbery to gather food goes wrong, the gang take shelter in a large house in a desolate rural area. There, a woman who says she's a nurse (Michelle Dockery) takes care of them. But things are not what they seem, and now the kids may never escape the nurse's house.
Is It Any Good?
This film builds suspense and has a few successful jump scares, but the premise and the characters feel both too far-fetched and too cinematically familiar to keep the viewer seriously interested. Post-COVID, the dystopian deadly virus is a more believable setup, but it quickly becomes clear that it's just a pretext for the real action of Please Don't Feed the Children. The bulk of the film takes place in a rural farmhouse overseen by a creepy recluse nurse/mom.
No matter how fun it is to see Downton Abbey's Dockery go so bad, her character here feels anachronistic: What's a British woman serving cookies and milk in linen floral dresses doing in the middle of nowhere America? She's an archetype, and you'll sense you've met her before. Meanwhile, the young characters are inexplicably timid about exploiting opportunities to take down their captor. (Also, shouldn't adults be wearing masks or other protective gear around potentially infected children?) The director (Spielberg's daughter) has probably watched a lot of cinema, but that might have offered both pros and cons for this debut feature.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about what they think some of the larger themes are in Please Don't Feed the Children, if any. Or, are the violence and fear the point?
Do this film and other pandemic films contain a greater sense of realism or relevance for you after COVID? Why, or why not?
Do you like scary movies and jump scares? If so, what's the appeal? How does this film compare to others like it?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : June 27, 2025
- Cast : Michelle Dockery , Giancarlo Esposito , Zoe Colletti
- Director : Destry Allyn Spielberg
- Inclusion Information : Female Movie Director(s) , Female Movie Actor(s) , Black Movie Actor(s)
- Studio : Tubi
- Genre : Horror
- Topics : Family Stories , Fantasy ( Monsters )
- Run time : 93 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : September 4, 2025
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