A claustrophobic cat-and-mouse chiller upends expectations to survive a streaming autopsy

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play-dead

via Voltage Pictures

Throwing several disparate genre elements into the same melting pot can often end up with nothing but a bitter aftertaste, especially when it unfolds in the realm of horror. That being said, handing a genre veteran the reins and allowing them to dig deep into a fascinating premise is one way to offset any concerns, and last year’s Play Dead has been soaring on streaming as a result.

Released to very little fanfare a couple of weeks back, the intoxicating hybrid of psychological thriller, murder mystery, and psychotic slasher has slowly but surely gaining a foothold among gorehounds everywhere, with FlixPatrol outing it as one of the most popular movies currently available to iTunes subscribers around the world.

play-dead
via Voltage Pictures

You wouldn’t have thought any film starring Jerry O’Connell – never mind one that sees him deliberately playing against type – would do a stellar job of breathing new life into a premise that seems familiar on the surface, but it helps that director Patrick Lussier knows his way around a jump scare or two having previously helmed Drive Angry and the My Bloody Valentine remake, as well as episodes of The Purge and Scream TV shows.

Bailee Madison stars as a criminology student who opts to fake her own death in order to gain admittance to a morgue, all predicated on her desire to secure evidence of a crime tied to her younger sibling. However, it doesn’t take long to realize that O’Connell’s coroner is hardly above board, plunging her into a cat-and-mouse game with deadly consequences where the living are exponentially more frightening than the deceased.