Come Play
Directed by: Jacob Chase
Written by: Jacob Chase
Starring: Azhy Robertson, Gillian Jacobs, John Gallagher Jr., Winslow Fegley, Jayden Marine, Gavin MacIver-Wright
Drama/Horror/Mystery - 96 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 28 Oct 2020
Written by: Jacob Chase
Starring: Azhy Robertson, Gillian Jacobs, John Gallagher Jr., Winslow Fegley, Jayden Marine, Gavin MacIver-Wright
Drama/Horror/Mystery - 96 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 28 Oct 2020
Stereotypical consequences of too much screen time include insomnia, obesity, eye strain, distractedness, and an increase in social isolation…even though social media may be your distraction of choice. It’s this increased social isolation and loneliness which intrigues writer/director Jacob Chase. In order to escalate his idea into PG-13 horror, this technological abyss can now physically manifest itself into corporeal form. Sure, certain obstacles must be overcome first, akin to saying “Beetlejuice” three times, but Larry the screen junkie monster just wants a friend. Come Play is a horror movie for our cloistered, pandemic-separated times, but the idea of generating a “through the looking glass” iPad monster is a pretty feeble interpretation of spending too much time playing Candy Crush.
8 year-old Oliver (Azhy Robertson) is autistic. He uses apps on his phone to speak; therefore, screen time is an integral part of his life. His differences make him a target for school bullies, which in turn, makes him an attractive target for Larry. There are some ideas about the pros and cons of technology butting heads in Chase’s script. Too much involvement with your gadgets can be a problem for anyone, but Oliver employs these gadgets to interact with the world. The devices he uses to speak and learn are the very same ones which offer a window to the loneliness monster looking for a friend.
8 year-old Oliver (Azhy Robertson) is autistic. He uses apps on his phone to speak; therefore, screen time is an integral part of his life. His differences make him a target for school bullies, which in turn, makes him an attractive target for Larry. There are some ideas about the pros and cons of technology butting heads in Chase’s script. Too much involvement with your gadgets can be a problem for anyone, but Oliver employs these gadgets to interact with the world. The devices he uses to speak and learn are the very same ones which offer a window to the loneliness monster looking for a friend.
Oliver’s parents, Sarah and Marty (Gillian Jacobs and John Gallagher Jr.) are going through a separation with the root cause appearing to be Marty’s disconnectedness with Oliver. Mom is there all day dealing with the hard parts of parenting. Marty swoops in at magic hour, cracks a few jokes, delivers some high fives, and flies out again for another shift at his parking lot ticket booth. Like similar Amblin Entertainment films with an outsider presence, think Poltergeist, E.T., and even Arachnophobia, the plot involves the whole family, not just the alleged imagination of the child lead. Soon enough, both mom and dad have their respective run-ins with Larry, but are at a loss at how to lead him away from Oliver.
Larry has horror movie power. He can affect electricity, usually some sort of lightbulb shenanigans, the wind, and even mess with swivel chair height levers. He can also set up a nice PG-13 jump scare. Another trope Larry has going for him is horror movie lighting. You’ve seen this before. Lamps which produce hardly any light at all. Rooms which are covered in the darkest of shadows when they need to be. Little Azhy Robertson channels the spirit of Haley Joel Osment before him of using facial expressions to show dread of his immediate surroundings, but of course, Osment had a significant leg up since he could eerily whisper, “I see dead people.” I don’t know how well it would go down for Oliver to whisper, “I kinda sorta see glimpses of a nine-foot tall, bony man/monster thing.”
Come Play and Larry the monster are PG-13 horror. There are no scenes which achieve any authentic bone-chilling scares nor any out right menacing thrills. The few times a character interacts with Larry and comes away the worse for it, the action is off screen or blurry at best seen through a choppy iPad camera. There is no shortage of films exploring the impact of technology saturation on contemporary culture and they fall across all genres. There are warnings by way of documentaries, artificial intelligence which comes to life in action films, dating apps which spur meet cutes in rom-coms, and now loneliness monsters exploit our devices to enter our world to mostly mess around with our lightbulbs. Meh.
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