Come Play is a 2020 American supernatural horror thriller film written and directed by Jacob Chase, based on his own short film titled Larry. The film stars Gillian Jacobs, John Gallagher Jr., Azhy Robertson, and Winslow Fegley. A gruesome monster named "Larry" manifests itself through smartphones and mobile devices while trying to take Oliver, a lonely boy desperate for a friend.
Come Play was released in the United States on October 30, 2020, by Focus Features. The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $13 million against a budget of $9 million.
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Plot
Oliver is a young non-verbal autistic boy, who uses a tablet computer and smartphone to communicate. He is taken care of by his mother Sarah, while his father Marty spends most of his time at work to support the family. Sarah and Marty's marriage has become difficult to the extent that Marty moves out.
One night, Oliver notices a mysterious electronic book in his tablet, "Misunderstood Monsters," narrating the story of a lonely monster named Larry who "wants a friend." As Oliver begins reading the story, his bedroom lights flicker. At school, Oliver is bullied by his classmates due to his condition, leading to loneliness and a desire for friendship.
Sarah organizes a sleepover for Oliver to make him more social, inviting his three classmates who bullied him. One of the classmates retrieves Oliver’s tablet, and reads Larry’s story. Suddenly, the house lights go out, and through the tablet's camera, the boys see an image of Larry lingering in the darkness. In disbelief of the presence, Byron investigates and is invisibly attacked, causing all three terrified boys to blame Oliver for the incident. In the following days, Sarah begins to notice Larry's manifestation. Using the tablet’s microphone, Larry expresses its desire to take Oliver away from the human world, terrifying Sarah.
That night, Marty takes Oliver to his night-shift parking lot attendant job. Larry, revealed to be a pale skeletal creature similar to a ghoul, begins to stalk them. When Marty witnesses Larry picking Oliver off from the ground, he finally believes Sarah's claims of an entity reaching out to them. After realizing that Larry is a creature from another dimension seeking a human friend to join his realm, they break the tablet to prevent it from emerging and abducting Oliver.
Traumatized by the incident, Byron absolves Oliver of blame and points out that Larry is responsible. Byron and Oliver were once good friends, but their friendship ended, which also ended their mothers' friendship. Bryon and Oliver talk with the help of the app on his phone and realize the truth of their conflict, that Oliver's Mom lied and said that Oliver did not want to be Byron's friend. After that, they set aside their personal conflicts and become friends again at school. At work during the night, Larry’s story pops up in Marty’s phone. After scrolling through the story, Larry appears and attacks Marty for protecting Oliver. Marty manages to drive away, but is injured and hospitalized after being startled by the creature.
Back home, Larry continues to torment Sarah and Oliver to finish its story. When they refuse, Larry digitally manipulates its story to the end, triggers a power outage, and emerges from a television, which serves as a doorway to its dimension. Sarah and Oliver hide while Larry searches for the boy throughout the house. To prevent the abduction, Oliver says the word 'field" and convinces Sarah to run to the field in which he was earlier bullied, as there is no electricity there and thus out of the creature's reach. However, Oliver's discarded phone is still there, and Larry travels through and emerges in pursuit.
As they flee, Oliver is captured by Larry and taken into the woods. Oliver prepares to take the monster’s hand to become its friend, but Sarah intervenes and sacrifices herself for the safety of her son. In their final moments, Oliver looks Sarah in the eye for the first time, something Sarah has struggled with ever since Oliver was diagnosed. Larry transforms Sarah into a spectral being, and drags her away into the phone screen, leaving Oliver grieving for the loss of his mother.
A short time later, Oliver lives with Marty, and they start to deal with Oliver's autism as Marty gets more involved with Oliver's therapy. One night, the lights go out again, and strange noises are heard downstairs. Marty grabs his tablet, and sees Oliver and Sarah’s ghost playing happily. Sarah tells her son "I will protect you", as Marty smiles.
Cast
Azhy Robertson as Oliver, an autistic boy
Gillian Jacobs as Sarah, Oliver's mother
John Gallagher Jr. as Marty, Oliver's father
Winslow Fegley as Byron, Oliver's former friend, who later becomes his friend again
Rachel Wilson as Jennifer, Byron's mother
Jayden Marine as Mateo, one of Oliver's new friends
Gavin MacIver-Wright as Zach, one of Oliver's new friends
Eboni Booth as Dr. Robyn, a speech therapist
Dalmar Abuzeid as Mr. Calarco, a teacher
Production
It was announced in February 2018 that Jacob Chase would write and direct a film adaptation of his short film Larry. In September 2018, Gillian Jacobs and Azhy Robertson were cast in the film, and in November 2018, John Gallagher Jr. was added as well.
Release
Come Play was theatrically released in the United States on October 30, 2020. It was previously scheduled to be released on July 24, 2020, but the release was rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The studio spent "in the high single digit million range" promoting the film.
Home media
Come Play was released on DVD and Blu-ray on January 26, 2021, by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.
Reception
Box office
Come Play grossed $10.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $2.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $13.2 million.
The film grossed $1 million from 2,183 theaters on its first day, including $150,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $3.2 million, over the October 30–November 1 Halloween weekend, coming in slightly above projections and topping the box office. The film fell 45% to $1.7 million in its second weekend, finishing second, after fellow Focus Features release Let Him Go, and then made $1.1 million in its third weekend.
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 56% of 120 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "A frightening feature debut from Jacob Chase, Come Play makes up for its uneven tone by adding real depth to its jarring scares." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 58 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported 60% of audience members gave the film a positive score, with 40% saying they would definitely recommend it.
David Ehrlich, writing for IndieWire, gave the film a "C−" grade, writing, "merely serviceable, [the film] leaves you with the feeling that a much better game was lost in the shuffle." The A.V. Club's A. A. Dowd gave it a "B" and called it "an Amblin entertainment in the purest, classic sense." In Variety's review, Courtney Howard stated, "The title stands as a beckoning call to audiences to join in the devilish delights he's conjured. Yet the scares in the tale fail to scale from a mobile device to the big screen."