Come Play

I think what I enjoyed the most out of this movie was the main character Oliver. He is a boy who is on the autism spectrum and is mostly non-verbal. He uses technology as an assistant to help him catch up to his peers. The thing about a main protagonist who is nearly entirely mute is he has to be expressive in other ways. Coming across as a terrified child might seem like it isn’t that much of a feat but he does a fantastic job expressing his fear effectively while simultaneously attempting to rise above it. He deals with the inability to communicate effectively with his parents and the impact that creates to their family dynamic. He navigates what it’s like to lose friendships and deal with bullying at the same time. The story plays out that one of his closest friends has become a significant antagonist over an incident we aren’t privy to initially but do get to understand better later in the film. There’s solid growth throughout the film on the part of Oliver and in the end the character really does thrive which was a really meaningful way to round out this seemingly helpless child. The parameters of the role seem very similar to those of the child in The Babadook but Oliver is far and away less annoying and his story arc concludes in a much more natural and believable way.

The other part of this film that I enjoyed was the messaging about screens. It didn’t feel preachy but I definitely understood what they wanted me to take away from the story. Not that it was the primary driver of the film but it was clear that the story was meant to emphasis the importance of real human connection despite challenges instead of retreating into a world of screens that isolate us despite the soothing nature of their dopamine delivery. I don’t want to necessarily take this as an opportunity to get on a soap box but I enjoyed how this resonated in the story and the resolution wasn’t necessarily that screens are all bad and we should get rid of them but more to understand how we can allow them to be tools we use instead of their ability to turn us into tools they use. Yes, I get that’s a cheeky juxtaposition but if the movie Wall E taught us anything about human behavior its that we’re definitively on a trajectory to be consumed by screens and content as we live off nachos and milkshakes. Not that I’m one to preach on the subject. I should be a student of this lesson just as much as the next fellow. I was just happy to see such a valid take on the subject and to use the lens of horror as a way to accomplish that. There’s a time and a place for screens and as long as we keep that in check then we’re good. Let it go too far and Larry will take you back to his lair and nobody wants that.

The last real positive I want to highlight is the monster himself, the aforementioned Larry. What I appreciated the most was that they didn’t shy away from embracing him on screen. In the first act we get a number of allusions to his presence. My favorite is when Oliver’s dad first finds the new iPad in the lost and found at his parking lot attendant job. Flashing florescent lightbulbs and a flurry of scattered newspaper pages blowing in the wind create a small amount of chaos as dad is checking out the iPad. Just over his shoulder in the background you get to see a number of said newspaper pages begin to create the hulking outline of an invisible figure lurking in the parking lot behind him. Just as everything settles down we see the papers blow away and Larry disappears. Moving into the second act of the film there are several times you get to really see Larry, albeit on a screen. He’s not some shadowy outline int he dark you have to try and make out. What I appreciate about embracing his physicality is that it doesn’t make Larry’s movement fodder for overt jump scares. It’s the jerky way he moves around coupled with the eerie cracking of joints and bones that makes his creep factor soar. He’s very much there. You can see him just enough to know there’s definitely something there. I get tired of movies that deal with this trope that wait for a brief reveal somewhere near the finale. There are elements of Larry you don’t see until later in the film but his hands and feet and even his massive height and twisted spine make for a haunting image that elevates the scenes he is present. Additionally there were a number of times when Larry is present that are practical effect. So often anymore these ghouls are fully CGI and done up just for that shocking in-your-face jump you eventually get. And Larry may have some of that towards the end but he’s earned it by that point. None of it seems egregious to me. There’s times where you’re almost somewhat sympathetic to the monster where he begins to lull you into a false sense of security. Sure he’s a ghastly sight but he’s just looking for a friend. Maybe it’s all a misunderstanding? Maybe he just looks different and we aren’t supposed to judge him? Maybe that’s all an act and it only makes him scarier and more diabolical? Who knows?

Alright, if those are the things I liked then lets get to the things I didn’t. First off, this isn’t a unique movie by any means. I still enjoyed it but at this point there’s scores of movies that are about a lone child plagued by some boogeyman (some even aptly titled “Boogeyman”) that no one else can see. Shadowy outlines in darkened closets or piercing eyes at the end of a hall are the ways we get introduced to many of them. So the concept is far from new. Even some of the emotional components to how the family interacts are tired. Mom is the stressed out “bad guy” who has to deal with the massive weight of spending most of her day frustratedly attempting to parent a child with significant mental and emotional issues. Then there’s dad who tends to swoop in at the end of the day and undercut the severity of that energy deficit mom runs on perpetually. The division between the parents exacerbates Oliver which is always less than helpful. It also just creates further stress in the whole house. I know part of this is intentional as stress feeds the tension, but this is a little sloppy in my estimation. It doesn’t stop if from being relatable to many people but you don’t want to relate to a horror movie on the notion that they’ve accurately accounted for your level of emotional disconnectedness in the home. Either way, I’m also not a fan of the dad. He’s just kind of a wuss. He works a couple jobs to try and help make ends meet but he’s also really oblivious. It’s like they made him somewhat beta but also unsympathetic which doesn’t work. I get the alpha male who is distant and angry. He makes sense not understanding why things are falling apart at home. But this guy just seems like kind of an idiot. Mom is better in the fact that she seems far more willing to keep coming back to the table to make things work but eventually dad moves out. I remember the scene where he reluctantly drives away one night. But despite paying attention to the film and not being engrossed in my own screen simultaneously, I didn’t realize he was moving out. I actually remember thinking it was weird that he was going to work so late despite his overnight job at the parking lot. Which, minor rant her, I know it was necessary for the visuals they wanted to work with in the parking lot for the scares but that’s such a lame second job. As someone who has often had a myriad of second jobs in the past to try and help boost the family income, sitting in a parking lot overnight is just ridiculous. So that didn’t work for me.

The other aspect of the story that I wrestled with was the bullies. This is where we eventually came to find that the main bully used to be Oliver’s bestie but they had a falling out. There was a playdate and Oliver straight up clocked the bully kid in the face. We don’t see this in a flashback or anything, we’re just told that’s what goes down. The moms get involved and it turns out that Oliver’s mom tells the other boy’s mother that Oliver doesn’t want to be friends anymore. Eventually the two boys hash this out despite Oliver’s inability to speak. I liked the idea of the reveal that his bully used to be his bestie but they just kind of threw the whole notion in a blender and it smoothed out way too quickly for me. There was a part of me that secretly hoped that Larry was going to do something drastic to one of the boys to prove to Oliver he wanted to keep him safe. Larry did mess with the main bully at a weird impromptu sleepover that happened but they short-circuited the effectiveness of that once again in the dialogue. Bully goes home and stops talking all together. Oliver and his mom go over so the moms can commiserate and magically bully kid starts talking about Larry. This is right after Oliver’s mom has had a brush with Larry so she’s very attentive to the whole thing. It wasn’t that it was bad and I’m glad the boys worked out all their differences instead of one of the children being eaten or something. But that’s such a great moment in a horror movie when the bratty kid gets it. You don’t get to see it. They just get dragged crazily into a closet and then they’re just gone somehow and no one ever hears from them again. But unfortunately they wanted to give these kids coping skills or something. Who knows.

That’s really kind of the lot when it comes to what I didn’t like. It was unoriginal but I still enjoyed it. I know there’s a hundred other flicks out there just like it, and some of them are much better. Lights Out is higher on the list for me. Boogeyman might edge this one out a little just because the villain is a little more frightening. But this movie stills stands on its own merits for me. As it was closing out I easily came to a C+ rating for it. It was slightly better than middle of the road. I can’t really give it real high marks because the scares were minimal and the tropes were pretty tired. But there were some stylistic things I enjoyed and elements of the themes that really resonated well for me. The acting wasn’t great but it definitely wasn’t bad either. So it fits in that middle of the road kind of space but with just enough little things that push it in the positive direction. It’s a nice tight 96 minutes so not too far from that hour and a half mark that most scary movies in this vein really fit. Much longer and you run the risk of people getting bored. Much less and you run the risk of the movie just being an 82 minute piece of crap. I like a good 90 minute horror flick like this. You get in, get some scares and get out. Maybe a nice little creepy twist at the end and that horror itch gets scratched just right. It’s the McDonalds of spooky movies. You know just about what you’re going to get every time no matter which location you choose. So if you’ve not checked this one out and want a standard scary movie for your October Friday night, this one will probably do the trick. It may not be quite the treat some other better flicks are you can watch this time of year but I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised nonetheless. So until our next frightful feature, I’ll catch you on the flip side.