Play Dead

Medical student Chloe Albright (Bailee Madison) has money troubles. Unbeknownst to her, her brother and her boyfriend try to rob a dispensary. It goes badly and the boyfriend gets killed. Chloe has to play dead to sneak into the morgue and retrieve his phone which would lead back to her and her brother. Jerry O'Connell plays the creepy coroner.

On its surface, the premise seems like fine horror fare, but it really doesn't hold water. The attempted robbery would result in an investigation. It's an open case which needs to exonerate the shooter. They would need a much bigger conspiracy to hide a body from a case like this. He's not some forgotten homeless John Doe. The basic premise is problematic. The other problem is the lack the visual ingenuity or horror inventiveness. The filmmaking is weak. Bailee and Jerry do some fine work, but there is nothing much more that. It's a B-horror with problems.

It started out quite well, but then quickly turned into a cliche. There's absolutely nothing surprising or noteworthy, you can pretty much figure out the whole plot and even the twists within the first few minutes of the film.

Suspensewise, it was also quite predictable so honestly my heart rate never increased. I mean, compare to suspense from A Quiet Place or Don't Breathe, this film hardly creates a jitter. It is more of a gross type of film where you see a lot of blood, the cutting up of bodies, than it is about actual psychological thriller and even jump scare.

The only point that is noteworthy is the great performance by Jerry O'connell. The moment he came on the screen, you can feel his command of the movie. However, the most impressive of his performance was when he spoke; strong, articulate, and cerebral.

Overall a bore of a movie that you might share with some friends while eating pizza and stuff.

4/10.

This movie starts off messy. The story, acting, characters, felt so poorly created as a horror fan I couldn't see its value. But after we get comfortable in the morgue and the chase is on it picks up. By the end it had my full attention. I really thought they messed up with the lead actress initially but now I get why she was hired. Young lady can scream and showed excellent range in the second half. Displayed great rage. Not just the damsel I thought it was setting her up for. I could see her growing as a scream queen. Hope to see her in more films. Part of why I wanted to stick things out was Jerry O' Connell and he's a great villian in this. I've seen him pop up in a few horrors before and he always entertains. I grew up with his films so I may have a bias admittedly. By the end they do an excellent job at creating a monster. I could see a sequel happen with his character. I'm not a big gore fan, it's not too excessive but body parts are involed so don't be too caught off guard. There's not a lot of bad language. Because I'd read the negative reviews I thought it was worth sharing a positive experience. First half I was going to give it a 4, enjoyed the second so much it earned two points.

For the budget and premise this movie actually is pretty entertaining. Granted there are some pretty bad plot holes around character decisions and a few other things, but I found myself engaged( mostly from the increasing tension and acting.

The lead female does a fantastic job and is able to showcase her range here. I could see her leading a few bigger budget films soon.

The movie overall has some bad scenes (like the first scene) but don't let that put you off. Once it gets going it's pretty entertaining with some solid gore and a few minor twists. I think the production was well executed. I could see shudder or Amazon prime picking this up soon. 6.5/10.

The movie has so many parts of the story that make no sense and aren't plausible in any way. Having said that if you can get past that and suspend reality for an hour and a half it's entertaining. Bailee Madison does a great job as always and it keeps you on the edge of your seat. Jerry O'Connell plays the creepy Coroner really well. The twist at the end involving the police officer really isn't a twist since you can see it coming a mile away. Overall, if you have an evening to spend and are looking for a movie to watch, you can do much worse than this if you're willing to accept the unbelievable story.