Come Play

Starring: Azhy Robertson, Gillian Jacobs, John Gallagher Jr., Winslow Fegley, Hayden Marine, Gavin MacIver-Wright, Dalmar Abuzeid
Directed by: Jacob Chase
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery
2020

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A monster begins stalking a boy (Azhy Robertson) through electronics and claims to want to be his friend.

Review:

Tim: I think there's some worthwhile ideas in Jacob Chase's Come Play, but the movie itself never lives up to its potential. The end result is a typical, run-of-the-mill horror movie. Too much of the film feels generic. It's about a supernatural entity stalking a young child. We've seen this movie before. Chase has a lot of short film directorial experience, but not much in terms of features. This definitely feels like an early career effort. To be fair, the movie isn't bad and it has some intriguing elements to it. But, in the world of horror films, this is easily dismissed and soon forgotten.

As I said, the premise has been done dozens of times before. The somewhat different twist is that Larry interacts with kids through screens. I suppose this sort of works. It feels like an on-the-nose metaphor for the dangers of screen time with kids, which is true but causes a bit of eye-rolling. There might be a worthwhile takeaway about the ubiquity of screens and how kids can't seem to escape them. I suppose that works. I wouldn't say it was especially deep, but I'm all for horror movies trying to have more depth. The idea that Larry shows up in story form first and that reading the story... I don't know, opens the gateway to him? I'm not entirely sure how that works. Taking the idea of a children's story and making it sinister is absolutely a worthwhile concept. Stories are typically calming, reassuring, a chance for parent and child to connect. To take that and fill it with fear and trepidation is definitely interesting.

I thought the characters here were underdeveloped and disappointing. I never really cared that much about Oliver. Azhy Robertson did a decent job, but the character's limitations prevent us from really identifying with him. I don't feel like I understood his character, other than he's had a few tough breaks in his life. I was supposed to care about him because he's an innocent child, not that the film gave us any compelling reason outside of that. I wasn't all that invested in his parents, either. I suppose they are depicted as appropriately flawed human beings, but it all felt generic to me. The scene where the dad doesn't believe the mom about supernatural beings feels like it could have shown up in literally a hundred other films. Some of their behaviors made very little sense, logically. I really like Gillian Jacobs and I want her to do well in her career, but she's not great here. A few times I cringed at her forced delivery. It wasn't a great performance. She has a few decent moments, but it felt like she was trying too hard. I never really believed her performance. John Gallagher Jr. was definitely more natural in his performance. It might not have been especially memorable, but I didn't have any problems with his work. The rest of the supporting cast was fine. I didn't always believe the child actors, but I understand.

Now, the film's biggest strengths include the visuals of Larry and some truly unique and interesting shots throughout the film. Chase might need a lot of work on the human side of the equation, but I thought he framed his shots really well. Larry was absolutely creepy and there's multiple moments that feel genuinely unsettling. The visual effects work well and add to the atmosphere. The use of screens might have been overplayed a bit, but there were truly uncomfortable moments, like when the ipad screen puts a hat on a "face" that isn't there. I give Chase a lot of credit for some of his inventive scares. Yes, he relies on jump scares a bit too often, but there were some genuinely nerveracking moments that he created through his staging and choreography. He uses sound well to really create some intensity in his scenes. If there's something to be excited about it, it's this. I think with more experience on how to tell compelling human stories, Chase could have some very good horror movies in him. This one isn't, but there were many moments of promise.

I thought the ending of the film was fairly strong, too. Leading up to it, I admit, the movie lost momentum and I had started to grow tired of it. The characters weren't that interesting and I was ready for it to be over. Chase does pull it together for an impressive conclusion. I didn't love it, but it's one of the stronger aspects of the film and has a memorable visual.

Come Play is an uneven horror movie from a fairly inexperienced director and that shows up. However, Chase brings some worthwhile ideas to the party and manages to leverage impressive visuals to create moments that horror fans will like. I wish the movie was better, but even though it's just okay, there are some decent moments.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



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