"Come Play" slightly derivative but cleverly creepy with a wonderfully lonely monster

Come Play (2020)

Writer-director Jacob Chase turns his 2017 freakout short “Larry” into a feature film, “Come Play.” While many domestic horror movies with a monster make the monster represent something else—it’s grief in “The Babadook” and mental illness in “Lights Out”—the only takeaway with this monster is that he’s coming from inside the screen of every device and may cause more than eye strain. Perhaps Chase’s film is a metaphor for technology failing to cure loneliness over direct communication with a human being. Or, perhaps it’s just a simple yet effective fright flick with safe scares and that vintage Amblin sensibility. Either way, “Come Play” still works, despite its somewhat derivative trappings.

8-year-old Oliver (Azhy Robertson) is on the autism spectrum and communicates by typing into his screen tablet that provides him with a voice. His parents, Sarah (Gillian Jacobs) and Marty (John Gallagher Jr.), find their marriage on the rocks while still supporting Oliver’s needs. Sarah tries to set up play dates and sleepovers with her own friend’s son, but Oliver is just bullied when he needs a friend the most besides Spongebob Squarepants re-runs. Isolated and lonely, Oliver finds an app called “Misunderstood Monsters” on his phone, where he reads the story of a spindly monster named Larry, who’s just as lonely as Oliver. Powered by electricity and able to cross over from his dimension into the real world, Larry is, in fact, tangibly real, and he wants Oliver.

Atmospheric, assuredly crafted, and sometimes even shiver-inducing, “Come Play” is only as strong as its monster. Sure, one indicator of what separates a truly special horror film from more run-of-the-mill fare is the rooting interest in the characters and story if the supernatural entity was taken away. This time, the family drama lacks specificity, and the characters are only adequately fleshed out, but the actors playing them add depth and make them feel like real people. Azhy Robertson (2019’s “Marriage Story”) impressively communicates isolation and fear without saying a word as Oliver. Gillian Jacobs (2020’s “I Used to Go Here”) and John Gallagher Jr. (2020’s “Underwater”) capably bring authenticity to Sarah and Marty, who have contrasting parenting styles. While the cool and fun father must also be the stubbornly disbelieving one until he meets Larry himself, Sarah is an appreciably proactive mother to an autistic child.

Built by the Jim Henson Creature Shop with practical puppetry (and augmented with some CGI), the lanky Larry is a creepypasta-ish monster creation that could probably make friends with Pumpkinhead, Mister Babadook, and Slender Man. For an old-fashioned monster-in-the-closet horror story made fresh in the digital age, “Come Play” opens itself to plenty of tense bumps in the night as characters encounter Larry. Early on, there’s a creepily fun jolt involving the presence of Larry being recognized by the Phonebooth app behind Oliver. At a sleepover, Oliver’s best friend-turned-bully Byron (Winslow Fegley) and Byron's two friends read Larry’s story on a tablet at a sleepover, only to conjure him. Nearly identical to director Jacob Chase’s own five-minute short, a nighttime set-piece (actually three) in a parking lot, where Marty works part-time as a parking attendant in a booth, is a major highlight. In cleverly chilling ways before one gets a live look at Larry, debris lands on the invisibly tall figure and Oliver tests his sticky-hand toy on his new friend. How Chase chooses to end “Come Play” could come off cornball, but the final image carries with it a tragic, bittersweet poignancy that should resonate the deepest with parents. 

Grade: B -

Focus Features is releasing “Come Play” (96 min.) into theaters October 30, 2020.