Come Play

I thought this movie was just alright, nothing really special about it. The movie felt a little repetitive and predictable at times. I didn't find it very scary either. The monster was cool but didn't really do anything. Mostly just creeped around the entire time. Generous 6 stars.

I've seen better and worse, but for what it is, as a PG-13 horror movie, I think it does really well. It's short on scares, so don't go into this hoping to be scared out of your mind, but I think the emotional power that the message conveys is definitely worth a viewing. Definitely struck my heart strings by the ending. It's definitely derivative of several movies, but it's pretty good for sure.

No, it's not a masterpiece that would deserve 10/10 as some have rated it here. But it's not a total crap either so it doesn't deserve 1/10 ratings either. The story as a whole is actually good, something different. There are few jumps scares, some better than others, there's some creepiness at times. It's supposed to be a horror movie but at times it felt more as fantasy - I think that might be one of the reasons why this movie is rather weak, the director couldn't make up his mind what genre to choose. The main actors, unfortunately, are terrible. The few ones that are actually ok play only secondary roles. The parents are annoying, you actually hope that at least one of them would die - they're so unlikable (I won't say if anyone dies or not because I don't want to give spoilers). Some the dialogues would make your eyes roll as well. I don't know what went wrong, the movie had so much potential to be so much better. I thought it might have been the budget but for 9mil (to compare: Babadook had only 2mil) I would expect something better. In short: it's an "ok" movie. Definitely something different. The 5.9 score it has at the moment is fair.

While we all want something terrifying from the horror films we watch, it is nice to get some psychological and emotional aspects intertwined within the scares to give it that extra depth. This particular story is very reminiscent to Mike Flanagan's style where he places just as much importance into the heart and soul of the characters as the amount of detail in the creepy creatures or hauntings. It's definitely a great and promising first feature effort from Jacob Chase.

The film still does have its classic clichés with many predictable timed jump scares and the all too common tech themes of late , but it still wraps everything together nicely with some interesting concepts. There are some tremendous moments of authentic emotion portrayed by the main actors as well which is an underrated aspect especially in horror films. There's also a very interesting entity with a great backstory with some decent enough CGI to present it. The atmosphere and tension is prevalent and there are some clever camera choices.

Overall it's way better than many will think it will be after seeing the very cliche trailer, and people shouldn't take it for just a kids horror. If this is the one wide release horror film we get for Halloween, it does serve its purpose well enough.

And the acting police. 1. For all the crappy movies I have to wade through to actually find something worth watching these days is like finding a particular needle in a stack of needles. 2. This movie had an original plot, decent acting (despite what another "reviewer" had complained), it was creepy, and you didn't know the ending 30 minutes into it. 3. I gave this movie an eight because it's actually one of the better creepy movies I've seen in three months. I don't know about all of you, but indie movies are starting to grind on my nerves. I have to turn on the subtitles because I can't understand what they're saying most of the time. And then you have these user reviewers who critically acclaim movies where there's some hidden meaning in the ending that leaves you asking, "wtf was that and why did I just waste ninety minutes of my life I'll never get back to watch that bunk?"

So, this movie is not fantasy as another review suggests. It's a very decent horror movie that I think most people will enjoy.