Last week, I wrote about The New Mutants, the first movie I've seen in theaters since the pandemic started, and this week, I want to talk about the first brand new release (The New Mutants was already two months old when I finally saw it) I've been able to see. Come Play is a supernatural horror film that came out on October 30, and it's about a non-verbal autistic boy who encounters a monster from another dimension that comes into our world through technology like cell phones and iPads. He says he just wants to be the kid's friend, and he's willing to kill anybody who gets in his way.
This movie was written and directed by first-time filmmaker Jacob Chase, and while this debut has its flaws, I'm excited to see what Chase follows it up with. The film starts with an intense scene that builds up dread and suspense just about perfectly, and throughout the rest of its runtime, Chase proves that the opener wasn't just a fluke. In particular, he does a great job of using various tech devices in really creative ways to create some very spooky scenes. This guy knows how to do scares and tension, so he has a bright future ahead of him.
Along similar lines, the monster was pretty cool too. The creature design was good, and it's actually a fairly fleshed out character. Unlike most movie monsters, he's not simply an evil being that does evil things. I don't want to spoil it, so I'll just say this: Jacob Chase manages to turn this creepy monster into a genuinely sympathetic character that's more interesting than most villains in any genre, let alone horror. This adds a narrative layer that you don't normally get in horror movies, and it's really cool seeing a monster done in this unconventional way.
As good as the horror elements are, though, the best thing about this movie is by far the main character. I work with autistic kids, and let me tell you: Come Play does a fantastic job of portraying autism. It captures some of the telltale signs of the condition in a realistic and believable way, and child actor Azhy Robertson does a fantastic job of bringing that all to life. If I didn't know any better, I would've thought that he really was autistic.
What's more, Robertson also does a fantastic job of portraying his character's emotions without talking. Since the kid is non-verbal, Robertson has to convey what he's feeling through facial expressions and body language, and he does it brilliantly. Simply put, this might be the best performance I've seen by a child actor since Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense. It's just that good.
All that being said, Come Play isn't perfect. The main flaw is that the human drama isn't nearly as strong as the other elements. In particular, it has an undercurrent of familial dysfunction, but that didn't really add anything to the movie. It felt generic and halfhearted, almost like it was just an excuse to show off all the good things the film does. It didn't exactly detract from the movie, but it definitely didn't help either.
That's a fairly big flaw, and it keeps this movie from being as good as it could've been. If the story were up to par with the scares, this film would've been great. As it is, it's merely good, but that's good enough. Even if we weren't experiencing a dearth of new theatrical releases, a good new movie is always a treat, and it's all the more welcome at a time like this. All in all, I was very happy with Come Play, so if you want to go back to the movies and see something creepy, I'd definitely recommend checking this one out.
No comments:
Post a Comment