Come Play (2020)

(On Cable TV, October 2021) Had I stopped watching Come Play half an hour into it, my review would have been substantially more negative. I’m not claiming that it magically becomes a good movie at the end of its slow burn, but it gradually establishes itself as an average film, which is more than I would have thought after the dull introduction. The plot feels like a half-regurgitated mix of “all screens are bad and you should feel bad for watching them,” crossed with a bit of The Babadook and special-needs children’s horror. Our young lead is a non-verbal young boy who relies on his mobile devices to do his talking for him—but then he comes across “Larry,” a demonic entity who’s only too happy to cross over into the real world through screens. Mom and Dad both try to understand what’s going on—fortunately, there’s a book explaining it all; unfortunately, they don’t get around to reading it until at least an hour. The last half-hour of Come Play is somewhat more energetic than the rest, with bony hands poking out of any available screen even after they’ve been thrown on the front lawn. There’s a certain confidence to the way writer-director Jacob Chase assembles his material, although I wish he would have begun with a snappier beginning. Still, I like the film more after finishing it—it avoids the nihilistic shlockfest of many lesser horror films, and it does build to a watchable conclusion after spending far too much time dawdling and repeating itself. A good ending can rescue a film, and that’s a good reason to keep watching Come Play if you’ve already watched the first 30 minutes. It does get better. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s worth beginning.