Of course I rented "Come Play," and no, it's not very good
I mean, I’m still stuck at home with nothing to do, so of course I spent $20 to watch the new horror flick Come Play, starring Gillian Jacobs and my tentative crush John Gallagher, Jr. (I say “tentative” because I worry that by publicly stating my crush, terrible news about him being a bad person will somehow come out. Fingers crossed he stays dreamy, but I will not hesitate to evict him from my heart.) It’s about the parents of an autistic boy named Oliver (Azhy Robertson), who attracts the attention of a creature named Larry who lives in phones (sort of?) and wants to steal Oliver away. Sadly, despite my love of Jacobs and Gallagher, Come Play is very muddled and just isn’t very good.
Come Play is based on a 2017 short horror film called Larry, and the short film is admittedly very creepy and well done — they use this setting for several scary set pieces in the full-length film.
The full film also has some well-done creepiness of Instagram-esque filters detecting faces where there shouldn’t be, but these moments are fleeting, sadly.
The problem is that by trying to expand on Larry’s mythology and turn this into a 96-minute story, Come Play can’t quite figure out what it’s about. Is it about a nightmarish bedtime story come to life? Yes. Is is about a struggling mother desperate to connect with her son? Absolutely. But is it also about the dangers of technology? Yep. But wait, isn’t technology good because it gives Oliver the ability to communicate with his parents? Uh… yeah. Whoops. Guess they didn’t really think about that one.
The wife of Jacob Chase, the film’s writer and director, apparently works with children on the spectrum, which gave him the inspiration and insight into writing the Oliver character. But it just seems like he got the inspiration and then was like “Well then I guess he’s gonna go in this movie” without really thinking about what his story needs to be. There is an overall arc of Gillian’s character struggling with raising a child with autism and trying to feel connected to him, but honestly, for the whole movie she seems like a pretty decent mom, and when we do actually see her screw up, it just doesn’t ring true in the moment. 🚨Mild spoilers🚨 When Larry is chasing the two of them through the house and she’s trying to quiet Oliver while they hide, having her snap, “Why can’t you just be normal for once?” lands with a thud. It’s not that I don’t think that it’s a thought she would have, but like, hey, lady, maybe it’s not the right time to get into all of that when you’re literally running for your lives.
🚨More mild spoilers🚨 Furthermore, it’s eventually revealed that Larry is created by (or feeds on, or… is?) loneliness — yet when Oliver does start making friends, Larry’s power isn’t weakened at all, and there doesn’t seem to be any real way to stop him, which is… annoying, more than anything. It means we’re headed into an inevitable downer ending, which I’m not against, but I also don’t want that to be the only option.
Again, I love Jacobs and Gallagher and I’m all for them getting lead roles in more movies. Sadly, though, Come Play was disappointing. If you do need to rent it, wait for the $20 price tag to drop significantly.
That’s all for me today, gorgeous! Talk to you soon.
Love,
Kat
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