Come Play: A Flat Techno-Horror About The Dangers Of Screen Time
Come Play stretches writer/director Jacob Chase’s 2017 short, Larry, into a relatively uninspired feature film monstrosity about parenting, bullying, and the dangers of technology. Although its title invites you to engage and implies there’s fun to be had, this drama heavy techno-horror has little to offer outside its half-baked message.
Parents fight to save their son when a mysterious creature named Larry who uses his electronic devices to break into our world.
All the self-isolation brought on by the coronavirus left a lot of us feeling alone. But no matter how lonely we feel, there’s always one “friend” that keeps us firmly connected. The invention of the smartphone essentially gave us all a pacifier for our boredom and loneliness (amongst other things). However, as our dependence upon technology continues to grow, so, too, does our uncontrollable urge to stare mindlessly into our phones. It’s an unhealthy compulsion that affects all of us, but its potential impact on the younger generation is the more serious concern.
Chase takes aim at the threat of technology in Come Play, but he fails to explore the depths of his premise, ultimately arriving on the generic perspective that “technology is bad.” That said, a film’s unoriginality can be overlooked, provided it has some form of entertainment to offer — but that’s where Come Play really disappoints. The film feels like a Blumhouse abortion impersonating The Babadook. All the necessary ingredients for a solid horror film are absent. It’s totally lacking in atmosphere, tension, suspense, scares, or fun, and it’s neither intentionally or unintentionally funny. Worse of all, it doesn’t present us with characters that resonate through the film’s hollow techno-horrors.
Come Play feels as cold and detached as someone caught in the glow of their smartphone, and it’s replete with performances that match that sleepwalking energy. Chief among them is Azhy Robertson, who is unable to form a bond between the audience and his character, Oliver, despite there being a lot to sympathize with (he’s a bullied non-verbal autistic whose parents are getting divorced). Gillian Jacobs (who plays Oliver’s mother, Sarah) and John Gallagher Jr. (who plays Oliver’s dad, Marty), give equally unaffecting performances that fail to make both the drama and horror compelling. Its cast of supporting child actors, Winslow Fegley, Jayden Marine, and Gavin MacIver-Wright, wind up stealing the show, with Fegley being the frontrunner. Each have fun with their characters and are able to give the films a few much needed laughs.
The mythology behind the film’s technology-wielding monster, simply named Larry, is as underdeveloped as the rest of the film. The creature design is decent, but we don’t learn much about him. We get a bit of background on Larry’s origins from the Babadook-esque children’s book that just mysteriously appears on Oliver’s smartphone, but we don’t get much more than that. Larry’s origins and motivations remain largely unexplained, which leaves more to be desired. We never understand why he’s targeted Oliver, or how his powers really work.
While there’s two sequences in particular that crack with a nice tension, all of Come Play’s horrors are supremely lacking in any real stakes, which make its journey all the more lackluster. By the time Come Play decides to finally participate, it’s too late; the audience will either be asleep or illuminated in the glow of the smartphone.
Recommendation: Although Come Play begs for you to join in the “fun,” you can wait to engage with this one until it’s available on streaming.
Rating: 1.5 app malfunctions outta 5.
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