Young Oliver (Azhy Robertson) finds a new, admittedly creepy friend via technology in the new movie COME PLAY, arriving Friday, October 30th from Focus Features. A metaphor of the social isolation cultivated by technology, the film personifies loneliness in a creepy monster that visits through technology. Expanding on his 2017 short film Larry, writer-director Jacob Chase builds a much bigger world of sympathetic, believable characters to comment on the necessity of communication and the desire to be connected to others. While keeping the scares at a very safe PG-13 level, we still get a story that entertains without cutting too many corners.

Navigating the difficulties of their son’s Autism, estranged couple Sarah (Gillian Jacobs) and Marty (John Gallagher Jr.) use smartphones and tablets to communicate with their mostly non-verbal child. When Oliver is gifted a used iPad, he comes across a mysterious e-book about a lonely character named Larry. Larry just wants a friend. Larry won’t leave until he gets one. Things start slow, as the usually do. A noise here, a weird moment there. All negligible. Then Oliver nears finishing the picture book and Larry begins to communicate. Worse, Larry tries to reach into the real world to take Oliver away. In one particularly cool scene, Sarah arranges a sleepover to better acquaint Oliver with his petulant classmates. One of the particularly monstrous kids, Byron (Winslow Fegley), pushes his luck and reads the Larry story out loud with disastrous results.

What will happen? Will Oliver’s parents overcome their differences long enough to realize their son is in serious danger? Will the kids at school get around their knee-jerk bullying and bridge the gap of understanding? Chase’s script excels in the logical plotting and its knack for originality over novel story beats. The biggest problems deal more with the monster itself and the particulars of how Larry can break through to the real world to become a danger. There are some great gimmicks that enlist characters looking using the camera on a device to spot what they cannot see in real life. These evoke ingenious moments of suspense but they only serve to create more questions. If he can attack while on the other side, why is he trying to break through, to begin with? I suppose we aren’t really supposed to think too hard about it. After all, we never really questioned how Samara could crawl out of a TV and claim her victims.

Setting qualms aside and giving in to the fun of it, COME PLAY is a solid piece of spine-tingling horror. Robertson‘s performance as Oliver, along with Fegley‘s Byron are excellent examples of young talent bringing what they know to the role. There is some great work here. Another highlight is the creature design for Larry. A skeletal form draped in slimy sinew, Larry is nightmare fuel. For a satisfying creeper of a story, COME PLAY rises to the task.

7 out of 10