“Come Play” is a new horror film with a technology twist to it, that was released on Oct. 30.
The film follows an autistic boy named Oliver who comes across a story on an app about a creature named Larry that is lonely like him. At first, Oliver is glad to find a story that relates to him, but he soon realizes that this story and the creature in it are much more than fiction.
The creature becomes hellbent on taking Oliver and uses any form of technology from smartphones to televisions to help it in its pursuit. Now it is up to Oliver’s parents to do whatever they can to stop this sinister creature from taking their son.
The film was directed by Jacob Chase and stars Gillian Jacobs, John Gallagher Jr., and Azhy Robertson as Oliver.
The script for the film has its ups and downs and is nowhere near a perfect story.
The script has a bunch of used and outdated horror gimmicks. One of these being multiple unnecessary jump scares throughout the movie.
There are also times in the film where the script is trying to be scary and serious and it just comes off as comedic.
The best thing about the script is how the creature uses different forms of technology to capture its prey.
It was new and original to see the creature use everyday items such as smartphones and laptops to spy on and attack people.
It made it even scarier due to the fact that these are items that are constantly being used by people all the time.
It was also nice to have an autistic character as the lead in the movie. This made for interesting dilemmas that you normally do not see in horror films.
The acting in the film was good but not great.
Azhy Robertson is the heart and soul of the film and gave a great performance for being such a young actor.
Gillian Jacobs was another standout in the film. She gives an emotional performance as Oliver’s mother and there are times in the film where you really feel for her and what she is going through.
The rest of the acting by the other actors was mediocre and pretty dull.
The special effects in the film were horrible and looked very cheap.
Whenever the creature was shown on screen, the CGI looked awful and it came off as funny at times.
The worst part about this is that the creature’s design was quite good, but the special effects ruined any hope of making it truly scary.
“Come Play” has a nice novelty in using technology as the creature’s main benefit, but this does not save the film from its bad special effects and average script.
The film was a good idea that was poorly executed.