Please Don’t Feed the Children (2025) Review

Please Don’t Feed the Children is the chilling debut feature from Destry Allyn Spielberg, available now on Tubi. Love Horror attended the U.S. premiere in New York on June 26th.

After a virus believed to be spread by children devastates the country, a group of kids on the run become hostages of a strange woman with a deadly secret. As a first feature, this story is approachable and great for audiences who like to get their hearts racing, but usually don’t go further into the horror genre.

Zoe Colletti plays Mary, who becomes the unwilling leader of the orphaned group and ends up in a survival game of wits with Clara, played by Michelle Dockery. While members of the group are picked off in a cannibalistic mouse trap, Clara attempts to escape her trauma via Mary. Dockery has a great way of switching from a lonely woman who deserves some sympathy to a deranged, controlling monster. Her presence on screen veers into the uncanny at times, then intimidating and building to absolutely maniacal. Colletti plays off of this well as she realizes her role of the final girl, gaining strength and moxie from each interaction with Clara.

With a plot that gleams inspiration from current events and anti-youth sentiments, Please Don’t Feed the Children is a modern horror of substance and drama. That’s not to say it falls short on scares. There’s just more character-driven narrative and suspense than blood and gore. It also has gothic elements with the strange mental state and cruelty of Clara and the mystery of what she is hiding in the large, empty house.

While each character can’t have the same amount of development, it felt like some pieces were missing from the plot. The tension between the orphan group and Mary escalates very quickly and even given the desperate circumstances, it seems rushed for the sake of time. This could be interpreted as a more realistic depiction of how children would interact in an apocalyptic situation but it’s a hard case to make when it feels so disjointed. This also goes for each character loss, it feels too fast which is mismatched with the slow unfurling of Carla’s true intentions.

The elimination of a few characters in the final drafts of this story could have done some good and given each character room to breathe. Tightening up the plot would have also avoided the slasher-like pacing in this dramatic slow burn. The final kills felt especially rushed while some exposition scenes felt drawn out. And although the main focal point of the film is the children, it would have been nice to see more of the two main adults Clara and Fitz played by Giancarlo Espozito. Having the history told through their conversations was much more enjoyable than how it is piecemealed through distorted news cast audio and blurry television screens. Esposito and Dockery’s scenes feel like a treat that elevated the film above the standard young adult dystopian story.

Please Don’t Feed the Children is a good foundational film that reveals Destry Allyn Spielberg’s strengths and weaknesses as a director. I am looking forward to seeing how the lessons learned from this project, along with audience reception, will inform her future endeavors in the industry.  The film is ultimately for fans of slow-burn horror packed with mystery and dramatic characters. It’s dragging pace and overpacked plot are difficult to overlook but are made bearable by compelling performances from the three titular characters. This Tubi original would be good to throw on for a low-commitment viewing any day.

Movie Rating:

Please Don’t Feed the Children trailer