Autistic boy lead charactor in horror movie

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It’s a tradition in horror movies to have a kid who sees the threat of ghosts and demons hiding in the shadows, and parents refuse to believe them almost every single time. Focus Features new horror movie Come Play takes on that trope head-on, but as the first trailer reveals, they’ve added some refreshing elements to mix up the formula a little bit. Not only is the young lead in this movie a boy with autism, but it makes clever use of tablets and camera filters as a way to create suspense and scares.

Come Play finds a young boy named Oliver haunted by a mysterious creature named Larry who just wants a friend. The only problem is that Larry is a terrifying, lanky creature who creeps around in a way that is not conducive to having any real friendly playtime. Pretty piss poor strategy there, Larry.

Though the movie as a whole feels pretty generic, complete with jump scares and all, I will say that the moment where a Snapchat-style face filter latches onto an unseen face in the darkness of the closet is a fun twist. It also seems that at times the only way to see the mysterious entity that’s haunting this young boy and his family is through the cameras on tablets and phones. It’s not clear why that is, and there are scenes where the monster in question can be seen without a mobile device’s camera, so we’ll have to wait to see the whole movie to get a grasp on how that all works. Hopefully it’s not just a cheap metaphor for our society’s obsession with mobile devices.

Gillan Jacobs (Community) and John Gallagher Jr. (The Newsroom) star in Come Play alongside new young actor Azhy Robertson as their son Oliver, and the film is written and directed by Jacob Chase.