10 Recent Horror Movies That Blew Great Concepts
7. Come Play (2020)
Oliver (Azhy Robertson) is an autistic child who struggles to communicate with others. He gets bullied at school, and his home life has become turbulent as his parents go through a rough patch in their marriage. When the youngster discovers a sinister storybook app on his phone, things only get worse as he's terrorised by an invisible monster named Larry who wishes to snatch the child for their own sinister reasons.
Writer and director Jacob Chase’s Come Play has a lot of great ideas. On one hand, it works as an intimate family drama that examines the pressures that come with raising an autistic child, and on the other it presents viewers with a techno-horror that sits conceptually somewhere between The Ring and Poltergeist.
Despite the creepy premise, Come Play rarely amounts to more than a series of clearly telegraphed jump scares that turn what should have been an atmospheric familial horror in the vein of The Babadook, into a bland haunted house affair.
Alongside the jumble of half-hearted scares, Come Play likewise stumbles when it comes to its themes surrounding technology and isolation. Despite the flick's attempts to create an emotionally resonating finale, viewers will have stopped caring long before the climax arrives.