Some kids have imaginary friends. Others have very real monsters. A family in the new horror flick “Come Play” is dealing with some legit Sunday scares.
Winslow Fegley (as Byron): “How come Oliver still gets to use his phone in class?”
Ana Araujo (as Girl Sitting Next to Byron): “He’s autistic, dude.”
Even monsters get lonely. That’s why the monster in “Come Play” is looking for a friend in Oliver, who’s autistic.
Larry: “I just want to be your friend.”
Gillian Jacobs, who plays Oliver’s mom, says monsters aren’t all bad.
Gillian Jacobs: “Larry is a misunderstood monster who is seeking a friend. He sort of lives within the world of devices, phones, tablets, computers, and is trying to come out into the actual, physical world.”
Azhy Robertson (as Oliver): “This is Larry. He isn’t from the world you know. Larry just wants a friend.”
Larry is actually from director Jacob Chase’s world.
Jacob Chase: “‘Larry,’ the short film, was something I made with my friends in a parking lot over one crazy night, and really, it came out of a few things. One, my love of Halloween. I wanted to make something for Halloween. Two, I’d been running this haunted house for many years, and Larry was actually first a costume I had made for the haunted house. I would get up on stilts in this big costume and scare people in the haunted house.”
John Gallagher Jr., who plays Oliver’s father, says the short film was his introduction to Larry.
John Gallagher Jr.: “Then I read the feature, and I couldn’t believe the way that he just took this lone anonymous guy, sitting in a parking lot attendant booth overnight, and expanded it into the story that became the feature. I think that’s the great sign a filmmaker, that he can start with that germ of an idea and then turn it into something that was so big and so rich and so familial.”
“Come Play” is now showing in theaters.
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