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Beware! Children at Play

1989 film directed by Mik Cribben

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 22, 2026
Entity authorityQ655414 ↗
Source-derived summary

Beware! Children at Play (also known as Goblins, Caution! Kids Are Playing, Warning! Children and Attention! Enfants and originally styled as Beware: Children at Play) is a 1989 American independent slasher film directed by Mik Cribben and distributed by Troma Entertainment.

Plot

A young boy plays with his father in the woods when his father is caught in a bear trap; he tells his son that eventually people will come and free him. After several days, he dies of the injury and orders the son to cannibalize his corpse after death, which the little boy proceeds to do.

Ten years later, parents John and Julia DeWolfe drive with their daughter Kara to visit their friends, the Carr family (Sheriff Ross, Cleo, and their daughter Mary-Rose) in New Jersey. Along the way, they are warned by bible salesman Franklin Ludwig about a series of disappearances in the area; when the DeWolfe family drives away, Ludwig is bisected by an unknown person with a scythe. Meanwhile, the wife of farmer Isaac Braun is killed after being lured outside.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Beware! Children at Play” as 1989 film directed by Mik Cribben. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1989—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1989-01-01. The account is most persuasive where Beware, Children and Play can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1989 film directed by Mik Cribben. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q655414. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1989.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Beware! Children at Play”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Beware! Children at Play primary sources, Beware! Children at Play archive and Beware research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Beware! Children at Play”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Beware! Children at Play” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.