NEED TO KNOW
Michelle Dockery is a surrogate mother from hell in her new movie from Destry Allyn Spielberg.
The thriller Please Don’t Feed the Children marks the directorial debut of the filmmaker, who is daughter to Steven Spielberg. As a new trailer shared exclusively with PEOPLE shows, it follows a group of orphans fleeing a mysterious outbreak that has decimated the adult population.
They find refuge at the secluded house of Dockery’s character — only then, as a synopsis teases, “to be taken hostage by a woman hiding a sinister secret.”
“I’m not supposed to take in children,” says Dockery, 43, in the trailer. Upon letting them into the house, she serves what appears to be poisoned milk and cookies, and she later confines them to a dark room.
Shane Sigler
“Don’t be afraid,” she can be heard screaming later to one of the kids. “I’ll be a good mother!”
Please Don’t Feed the Children, written by Paul Bertino, also stars Giancarlo Esposito, Zoe Colletti, Andrew Liner, Dean Scott Vazquez, Regan Aliyah, Emma Meisel, Josh Melnick and Vernon Davis.
“This film is a product of passion, trust and countless hours of collaboration,” says Spielberg, 28. “As the director, I’m proud to have helped shape a story that reflects the talent and heart of everyone who made it possible.”
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Spielberg has worked behind the camera on several short films and appeared in Licorice Pizza and an episode of I Know This Much Is True. She is one of her director dad’s seven children.
Following an October 2024 premiere at the 57th Sitges Film Festival, Please Don’t Feed the Children is on Tubi June 27.
