PopHorror Let's Get Scared
All Larry wants is a friend.
Written and directed by Jacob Chase, Come Play is a horror film about loneliness where the monster manifests itself through a child’s smartphone, and we see just how far Larry will go to be friends with young Oliver. I caught up with Jacob, and we discussed the short film that inspired the feature, what he loves about horror, what’s up next and of course, horror movies.
PopHorror: Hi, Jacob! How are you?
Jacob Chase: Hey, I’m great. How are you doing?
PopHorror: I’m good, thank you. So I loved Come Play. I thought it was so much fun, except you had me bawling at the end.
Jacob Chase: Well, thank you, and I’m sorry! But that’s nice to hear.
PopHorror: Of course! I saw that Come Play started as a short.
Jacob Chase: Yes, yes that’s right. As a short film called Larry that I made.
PopHorror: So, what inspired the film?
Jacob Chase: The short film was something I made as, honestly, a way to prove to people that I can direct something in the genre. I’ve made short films for decades, and I was a writer for a long time, but I kept making shorts to prove myself. So, I wanted to make something creepy and atmospheric. I had a costume for this big monster that I had made in my garage from a haunted house that I used to run. So, I put it all together and got my friends down. We shot it around Halloween, and it was great fun. But ultimately, I didn’t have any idea for what the feature would be. It wasn’t until after the short, where it started connecting with people, that I very quickly figured out what the feature version could be.
PopHorror: I spoke with John Gallagher, Jr. yesterday [read that interview here], and I was telling him how facial recognition software has always scared me a little bit, and how it sometimes picks up something that’s not there. I’ve always been told that my house is haunted, and while I don’t really believe it, it’s always there in the back of my mind. So I’m very, very cautious in using those, because I’m terrified that it will pick up something. Thank you so much for working that in there.
Jacob Chase: Well, thanks. I think in a movie like this, you don’t want to show the monster too much, so you want to create the feeling that the monster could be in the room with you at all times. Using technology to play with that idea was, I thought, a fun, new way to do it.
PopHorror: I agree! What is it that draws you to horror?
Jacob Chase: That’s a good question. I think for me, what I love about horror—I love a lot of genres—but what I specifically love in every movie that I like is that audience participation element. Some of my favorite experiences seeing movies as a kid were horror movies, because you go with your friends and you’re screaming with each other. You’re in each other’s laps because you’re so afraid. And it’s like the best horror films are really a conversation with the audience. You’re editing them; you’re creating pacing in a way to try and toy with the audience. It’s fun. It’s a game, and when audiences are down for that game, it becomes so much more fun. A genre that does that so much is horror. In the test screening of this movie, realizing that we can drag out this moment even more and make them squirm even more in their seats… that’s the exciting part of being a filmmaker.
PopHorror: Watching horror with my friends is what I remember over everything else. I don’t remember the comedies that we watched or the dramas. It was when we watched The Exorcist and then went exploring in the woods across the street. That’s what I remember.
Jacob Chase: Yes, exactly.
PopHorror: I was looking through your resume, and I see that you started as an actor, and then started making your own films. Did you always know that you wanted to be a filmmaker?
Jacob Chase: I did, from a pretty early age. I loved the acting at first. It was probably the first thing I got excited about. I started acting at eight-years-old in musical theater, and then eventually film and TV as well. On sets, I would see what the director did and what the cinematographer did, and I realized that, even at that point, the thing that I loved—which you get a lot in theater—is that audience participation part of it. And ultimately, the way to do that on a much bigger scale is to be the person actually making the stories. Really from the age of 9, 10, 11 years-old, I started making little claymation shorts, and I forced my friends to come over and be in my short films that I would shoot on my Hi8 digital camera. I’ve known this is what I wanted for a long time. I keep trying to succeed at it.
PopHorror: I love that. I know that Covid has stalled a lot of projects, and a lot of things have been cancelled, but is there anything that you have coming up? Anything that you’re currently working on?
Jacob Chase: Oh, yeah. I don’t know if there’s much that I can talk about, but I of course have a ton in development. I’ve got movies with a bunch of different studios, and some of them are horror again, but they’re not all genre films. They’re all sort of across different genres. Ultimately, the stuff that I want to work on are things that have a big audience appeal but also have a lot of heart and compassion, similar to what I tried to imbue into Come Play.
PopHorror: What is your favorite scary movie?
Jacob Chase: Honestly, it comes back to the best experience I had in the theater. My favorite horror movie, still to this day, is The Ring. I know it’s not the most obscure movie, but it scares the crap out of me still. I rewatched it recently with my wife, and it is utterly terrifying.
Thank you so much to Jacob for taking the time to speak with us today. Be sure to catch Come Play right now in theaters.
