Come Play Is a Horror Movie That Gets Autism Right

On the surface, Come Play looks like your standard supernatural horror film with a modern bent. With a not-so-surprising focus on technology, the monster that goes bump in the night makes his entrance not from the closet but from a tablet. The ultimate message about the reliance on technology and the loneliness it generates is a mild bit of insightful horror. But where this film thankfully soars higher from its lukewarm scare muck is how it tries to focus more on the issues of autism.

The film follows Oliver (Azhy Robertson), a boy with nonverbal autism who communicates via tablet and finds comfort in cartoons. His home life is unstable, as his constantly working father, Marty (John Gallagher Jr.), isn’t present enough, and his emotionally stressed mother, Sarah (Gillian Jacobs), has problems trying to connect with her son. Navigating life is just as hard for Oliver at school, where bullies target him for his differences. And it’s made clear that he’s had issues in the past.

John Gallagher Jr. as Marty, Azhy Robertson as Oliver, and Gillian Jacobs as Sarah in Come Play. Jasper Savage/Amblin Partners/Focus Features

One day, a mysterious app appears on Oliver’s device. Here, he finds a creepy e-book entitled Misunderstood Monsters that tells the story of the gangly monster Larry—not the scariest name, but the whole deal with Larry is that he’s lonely and wants a friend. Even though Oliver himself needs a friend, he’s not ignorant of what the scary imagery of the e-book implies. Clearly, Larry is going to drag whoever he wants as a friend to some dimensional hell, made most obvious by his frightening growls, loud stomping, and manipulation of lights.

When I initially saw the trailer for this film and learned the premise, my first fear was that this would be little more than another example of the autistic-child-in-danger trope. Yet Oliver is posed within this scenario as the most competent character, and he exhibits familiar autistic traits without going into exaggeration. He’s the first one to encounter the story of Larry and the first to know well enough not to keep reading when the lights start going out and monsters come about. While everyone else struggles to make sense of things, Oliver eventually starts formulating how to outsmart the monster. If only others would listen to him and try to understand him.

On the technological side, Come Play is certainly lacking. It relies on the tired trope of how reliance on technology breeds a monster that can trap us within an insular hole, delivered not so subtly in Larry’s climactic and confusing monologue. Thankfully, the film never favors an easy outcome, like merely taping up webcams and smashing tablets—the family will have to face and defeat Larry in a different way.

Jasper Savage/Amblin Partners/Focus Features

The grander story of Oliver’s connection with Larry is not that of overreliance on technology but of being led astray by those who do not understand him. Oliver has a bully at school, who horror movie logic would usually dictate to be the first victim. But the film reveals something more: that Oliver and the bully were once friends. An altercation forced them apart, and we’re first led to believe it was Oliver’s outbursts that severed their friendship. But that disconnect is not so simple as it first appears..

What I found most compelling about this picture, as someone with autism, is how the onus is not on Oliver to change but on others to boost his development with social comfort. Oliver’s parents need to take care and patience with their son and are held to their failings. Marty needs to be present with him more, and Sarah needs to brew some more empathy. As the monstrous Larry lurches closer and closer, Sarah starts to lose her cool—she screams at Oliver to just act “normal” when he tries to use stimuli to calm down. The good news is that Oliver doesn’t need to master verbal communication in order to save the day or deny himself stimuli to become the hero.

In one sense, this may paint Oliver as the autistic child in need of pity, but it’s presented more in a manner of acceptance. He eventually masters better communication, but not under duress when being assaulted by a spooky creature trying to lure him into his claws. He is portrayed as someone trying to do the best he can and requiring only the unconditional support of others to improve. His autism is not a hurdle he must conquer. The bigger mountain to climb for the other characters is their acceptance of Oliver, which may be vital to their survival.

Jasper Savage/Amblin Partners/Focus Features

The frights in this film are mostly par for the course but still rather creative in how Larry remains invisible and can remove lights when making his presence known. This can span anything from light bulbs bursting in a living room to a whole highway of lights going out as Larry homes in a speeding car. There are some exciting ways of discovering Larry, where he can only be seen via a tablet camera and can only lose his powers when not surrounded by power. The rules are never elaborately divulged, nor are there any firm answers to his origins. Maybe they’ll be revealed in some lackluster sequel that goes straight to video, but I honestly don’t care who developed Larry’s e-book app.

What I do care about is how Come Play poses a child with autism as astute without making him an over-the-top character, a somber savant, or a helpless victim. Compared to more recent depictions of autism in such massively misfiring movies as The Fanatic and The Night Clerk, this film was like a breath of fresh air. It’s horror that never feels as though it’s trying to use autism as the crux that forces Oliver to change or play the simplistic role of a kid in danger. He rarely becomes the full-blown hero of this story, but it’s refreshing that he’s not seen as the misunderstood monster. It is the neurotypicals who are the more frightening figures in the form of Oliver’s feuding and frustrated parents and his bullying classmates. And that’s a far more interesting horror film than just the monster in the iPad.