With any solid horror movie comes a decent concept which not only inspires creativity, but also an atmosphere that's genuinely creepy along with characters the audience can find themselves ultimately caring about. With Come Play, the latest horror and monster flick aims to rely on a fairly creative concept regarding the preying on young innocent children by a villainous nighttime monster who desires to have a friend, along with being atmospheric in terrifying its audience. What's most shocking about Come Play besides it managing to be reasonably effective in regards to creeping out it's audience, is the surprising amount of depth that the filmmakers put into both the characters and story. While the end result doesn't rank as being anything innovative as it borrows from other successful films in the genre, Come Play manages to entertain as being a fairly decent (If sometimes uneven), horror story that proves to be effective in ultimately making the audience jump.
Based on a 2017 short film, the plot for Come Play centers around a young autistic boy named Oliver who comes across an app on his tablet which prompts a monster named Larry to haunt him in search of a friend, while attempting to break out into the real world. Upon discovering this, his parents fight to protect him as Larry begins to make his presence known. The plot for Come Play earns points for attempting to bring something new to the table in regards to its concept, while playing off the basic conventions of a horror story. The film carries an old school style build up of suspense with its darkly atmospheric production design and basic directing, which gives it a young Steven Spielberg feel to it. What's most interesting about the way Come Play goes about trying to freak out its audience, is that it doesn't try to be outright scary but builds up its creepiness through both psychological and primal fears. Given that the film is a PG-13 style horror flick, it helps that the film is restrained from relying on excessive amounts of gore in order to unsettle its audience, but relies on solid performances as well as competent directing in being an overall worthwhile experience. Come Play aims to be more than just a cheap and mindless horror flick with its story making a noble attempt at connecting with audiences on an emotional level, along with giving its main characters arcs which is rarely seen in horror films nowadays. As hard as it tries though, the overall film despite being a surprisingly watchable effort in the end, doesn't reach its maximum potential in regards to being fully effective and ultimately settles for being just a fairly decent horror flick.
The one element of Come Play which audiences can agree upon as being one of its strongest aspects, is the performances of its main cast. The cast as a whole delivers strong performances, that makes their characters come across as being believable as well as being sympathetic to the audience. The most impressive performance in the film comes from Azhy Robertson as Oliver, a young autistic boy who communicates with his parents through his phone due to his inability to speak. Robertson does a convincing job of playing a young helpless boy, whose aware of Larry's presence around his family but can't communicate with them verbally on what's happening nor express his worst fears. Robertson's performance is noteworthy in regards to how he's able to make audiences connect with his character not just with the moments he's interacting with Larry, but his social life as well with the bullying he receives. Gillian Jacobs delivers a strong performance as Oliver's mom Sarah with her character being shown as doing everything possible to bring some normalcy to Oliver's life despite his illness, while also showing visible frustration with his condition. Jacob's nails down the inexperienced yet protective and caring mother role perfectly with her strongest work coming from the scenes in which she fights to protect Oliver from Larry. John Gallagher Jr. does well with his role as Oliver's father Marty, whose separated from his mother due to marriage issues. Gallagher plays the role of the light-hearted yet somewhat neglectful father figure, who at first tries to convince Oliver that there's nothing to fear with the app in his tablet before discovering Larry's presence. In the roles of the parents, both Jacob's and Gallagher make for a convincingly troubled young couple, who put their marriage issues on hold to protect their son from Larry. Another noteworthy performance comes from young actor Winslow Fegley as Oliver's friend turned bully Byron with the latter being misled at first in believing that Oliver chose to stop being his friend, but is later revealed to be a miscommunication between their parents which lead to their friendship being temporarily halted. Fegley does well with showing both the fear and terror his character experiences upon discovering the app on Oliver's tablet. The cast for Come Play does an overall solid job of playing their roles, while making their characters convincingly relatable as well as being sympathetic. Much of the films power in terms of being an effective horror and mystery thriller comes directly from the efforts the main cast put into making the story work. Everyone shown in the film gives the impression that they're doing their absolute best to make the most of the story given to them with their characters having complete arcs, ultimately making a big difference in regards to their characters not feeling completely one-dimensional for a typical horror story.
In terms of the films directing, Come Play's director Jacob Chase proves to be effective at creating dark and uneasy atmospheres while managing to keep everything within the realm of being PG-13. He crafts Larry's appearance to be one that's terrifying for audiences, though the use of CGI on his character comes across as being a mixed bag with him looking rather uneven at times. The scenes that are meant to be scary are both well-staged and executed with the quick glimpses the audience receive of Larry, being ones that manage to make for solid jump scares. The film is well shot with Chase keeping Larry's character hidden in the shadows until his ultimate reveal, allowing for the cinematography to utilize lots of dark lighting to keep the creatures appearance/location a mystery for the audience. Like most horror movies, Come Play maintains a traditional yet tightly-paced running time of 95 minutes with the film moving at a steady pace, which allows both the characters as well as their arcs to be fully fleshed out. The editing also consists of quick cuts with one scene immediately jumping to the next showcasing tight compositions, along with abrasive sound mixing to locations out in the open. Both Chase and the films editor allow the tension within the scenes to naturally build up, as well as letting shots take a form of their own. The score also proves effective in adding to both the horror aspects of the story, as well as enhancing the stories emotional core with the sound mixing being brilliantly utilized with the noise Larry makes with his slow footsteps in announcing his presence to both the characters and the audience, being a cleverly added touch. When it comes to directing the story, Chase appears to have a close eye for detail when staging horror scenes and filming them. The film has an all around solid production, that makes it appear to be well-filmed with the jump scares being effective for the most part with few misses. The use of modern technology such as Larry's app appearing on phones as well as tablets, adds to the stories creativity with giving it a present day approach despite the films atmosphere giving it an early E.T. and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind feel to it. Although Chase is no Spielberg when it comes to directing, he does a decent enough job in crafting what's essentially a creepy ghost story, that ultimately proves effective in scaring the films targeted demographic, which in this case are young teens.
In addition to the films strong acting and effective directing, the writing also done by Chase surprises with the amount of depth given to all the main characters in the story. Come Play's plot is not just a horror story, but also manages to be one that revolves around themes regarding empathy, a family, struggling with autism with the screenplay showing the struggle that parents have with raising a young child with a disability. The script makes it a point to show Oliver's struggle with making friends as he's shown to be socially distant, while also being constantly bullied at school. The writing takes interesting turns with little subtle things being added in the story to help flesh out the personality of Oliver, such as the use of SpongeBob SquarePants playing a sizable role in the story with Oliver's character being shown watching scenes from the cartoon, along with humming the main theme in order to calm himself. His parents are also shown to have relationship struggles in a way that feels both natural and realistic to the audience, with them being able to picture themselves in those scenes. The scripts greatest strength lies within the effort it puts into humanizing its key characters, ultimately making the audience care about them when they end up in moments of peril. The screenplay makes a point to show Oliver's mother Sarah's struggle with dealing with her son's condition with her frustration allowing her to make irrational choices due to not knowing what to do. Marty's character being shown working at a parking booth adds to the slick cleverness of the plot with it brilliantly setting up an opportunity for Larry to make his presence known through the use of electricity. One of the scripts most interesting and bold direction that it takes besides showing the relationship of Oliver's family, is portraying the monster named Larry as being a lonely creature who just wants to have a friend. The twist serves as being one that feels like a similar approach to E.T. except with a horror twist added in. The concept of his character terrorizing others at night through the use of electricity is both interesting and well-handled. The scripts moments where it struggles is when it throws conveniently forced plot twists at the audience such as Byron's character shown as being a bully to Oliver in the beginning with him later being revealed as being former friends, who quit being such due to their parents miscommunicating over a physical altercation between the two (Oliver's mother was essentially trying to protect him from facing scrutiny over the incident due to his autism). Such a sequence (Along with others) feels thrown out of left field, despite it having a satisfying payoff in the end involving Oliver, Byron and the other boys who helped the latter bully Oliver. The films end twist is one that's shocking yet gives the film a surprisingly emotional finale, which adds heart to the overall story. The scriptwriting for Come Play isn't perfect and occasionally experiences its share of hiccups, but the overall groundwork and laying out of the story is handled fairly well with the characters having actual personalities to them, along with an ending that's simply bittersweet. Its also a smart move that Chase makes with writing the story in keeping the amount of characters involved to a minimum so that the key ones get the maximum amount of development allowed. The script also manages to insert meaningful messages within it regarding how technology can wrongfully replace human interaction and responsibility. Although a horror story first and foremost, Come Play meets those expectations of being a genuinely creepy story while also surprising in other areas, that are strangely uncommon for the average horror flick.
Is Come Play's concept perfect? No, there's some questionable moments of logic in the story such as a scene involving Oliver smashing the lights in his room causing Larry to fizzle out. Such a sequence feels weird given that the latter has the ability to douse the lights himself when he emerges. The subplot between Oliver and the the three other boys including Byron who end up bullying him then later becoming friends with him once him and Byron straighten things out, feels a bit tacked on and rushed. Despite these minor issues, the film works as being an consistently effective and creepy story about a monster desiring to befriend a young boy. Such a concept would understandably draw comparisons to films such as E.T. if it wasn't for the fact that Larry isn't the type of friend whom one would want in their life given his tendency to taunt, terrorize, and hurt others in his efforts to be Oliver's friend. Whereas Come Play lacks in true scares, it ultimately makes up for with solid plot and character development with the end being a bold subverting of audiences expectations. The CGI work on Larry isn't the best to write home about, but his presence remains an horrifying one for audiences. The film is persistent in its building up of tension with the audience getting little moments of peace in between Larry's attempts to break out of his world into ours. The films heart lies within its characterization of Oliver with the audience wanting him to be protected and ultimately kept safe when Larry makes his move. In what was undeniably a challenging role for young actor, Azhy Robertson, he manages to do an outstanding job of playing the part well and keeping the audience invested in the story. Come Play may not be as effective and scary as it could've been under a more traditional R rating for a horror flick, but it makes use of its boundaries very well and serves as being an admirable attempt at being a little more thoughtful and creative than the typical horror fare that Hollywood generally churns out nowadays.
Final Verdict: Horror fans will find much to appreciate with Come Play with the film serving as being a genuine surprise for those expecting it to be a mindless horror/monster flick.
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