‘Come Play’ will likely make viewers complain
There’s nothing like a good horror film to close off October. So it’s too bad that “Come Play” is nothing like a good horror film.
Though it has its scary moments, “Come Play” is a compendium of horror movie clichés. There’s the dysfunctional family. Mom and dad are at odds over how they’re raising their child. The child has a disability. He can’t speak. Mysterious events are going on, but only the boy is aware of them, until it’s time for the parents to be clued in ... too late, of course. And there are the requisite flashing lights, creepy noises and REALLY LOUD MUSIC.
Oliver (Azhy Robertson, very good last year in “Marriage Story”) isn’t the happiest of boys. He can communicate with others via the speaking app on his cell phone. But he’s bullied at school, and when home, he’d rather be watching “SpongeBob SquarePants” than overhearing his folks argue about how much — or how little — each of them is contributing to raising him.
One night, while he’s closing his bedroom door to dull the din, viewers are treated to a point of view shot from inside his cell phone. Something has been watching him, and here come those creepy sounds of moaning and crackling bones.
Before you can say Squidward Tentacles, a new app shows up on his phone.
Titled “Misunderstood Monsters — A Children’s Story,” it introduces Oliver to “Larry,” along with a drawing of a spindly, skeletal creature, and an explanation that “Larry just wants a friend.” Lights flash, there are loud noises, Oliver, unable to close the app, freaks out.
The idea of Oliver relying on his phone app to “speak” to others is a good one, but the fact that his phone is lost, is replaced by a used tablet, and the tablet has the same app already installed, is a stretch. Before long, the voice of Larry, speaking to Oliver through the tablet, is telling him he just wants to be his friend. Soon, Larry can also be seen, but only through a video screen, even if he’s actually in a room with you. In due time, Larry is threatening Oliver’s mom.
The film has an ending that will make you wish you hadn’t sat through it — then a second one that, if you’ve been paying attention to the previous 90 minutes, makes no sense at all.
“Come Play” opens in theaters Oct. 30.