After her brother (Anthony Turpel) is involved in a robbery gone wrong, Chloe (Bailee Madison) has to break into the morgue to recover evidence that could incriminate him.
Once she has gotten into the morgue, Chloe discovers something more sinister is afoot…
“Get the tear gas. We need a liver”
Over a decade ago,
Directed by Patrick Lussier, of My Bloody Valentine 3D fame, Play Dead is a nasty little thriller with a lot to recommend it.
Starting out as a heist movie, as Chloe and her brother try to figure out how to break into the morgue, Play Dead quickly morphs into something more macabre once Chloe is inside.
As the cold-blooded Coroner, Jerry O’Connell is terrific. Underplaying throughout, his banal mask and dead-eyed glare are the perfect contrast to the character’s bloody actions. The one time he shows any emotion is a guffaw of laughter when a fleeing victim is caught on the electrified fence.
As Chloe, Bailee Madison is the steady anchor, selling the character’s desperation and intelligence.
Most of the film is a two-hander between the two performers, and it is partially a testament to them that the film avoids becoming repetitive or monotonous.
They benefit from a script (by Simon Boyes and Adam Mason) that is more interested in raising the stakes than explaining logic gaps. The script is also smart enough to give both hero and villain a similar level of improvisational talent e.g. shattering a lock with nitro; taking off shoes to mask your entry into a room.
They are small touches, but it is moments like these that make their struggle work, and means that Chloe’s survival is always in doubt.
The movie toys with ideas of power dynamics, class and race - particularly in terms of how they interact with law enforcement.
Chloe is driven to break into the morgue not just because of her brother but because of their economic situation - her parents have died, leaving them with massive medical bills, and they are in danger of losing the family home.
The reason her brother T.J. and ex-boyfriend Ross (Chris Lee) were involved in a robbery in the first place was to try and help them out.
These reasons do not matter to the film’s villain: the Coroner sees people in terms of productivity - if you cut corners or commit any crime for whatever reason, he is justified in selling your body parts for profit. While he is perverting the system to his own ends, he is not impeding it in any way - and as it turns out, he is enabled by other officers of the state.
Midway through the movie, we are shown the Coroner’s tactics in detail - he removes Ross’s heart while explaining his motives to Chloe. It is a grim scene that adds a queasy racial undercurrent to his philosophy - Ross is black, and his murder during the Coroner’s speech highlights who the killer preys on the most.
Ross gets the worst of the film’s violence. After his heart is removed, Chloe steals it and uses it to bait the Coroner’s dog. It falls in line with the film’s macabre take on MacGyver-style improv, but it almost felt callus. Or it could be a dark joke on how Chloe is forced to put Coroner’s philosophy into action.
Some viewers might pick at the logic of the scenario but they are missing the point: Chloe grabs an electric fence so she can zap a dog attacking her brother; one bad guy takes a gas tank to the face; even the dog comically eating Ross’s entire heart is cartoonish. Logic is an impediment.
The movie escalates in a way that builds the tension, and, refreshingly, the film ends without the embrace of law enforcement.
Usually, thrillers end with the police showing up post-villain demise as some kind of deus ex machina as our heroes are believed and taken away to have their wounds patched up.
This would have been a cliche ending, but also it would have undermined the film’s focus on how law enforcement ignores or abuses society’s forgotten people. Knowing that the Coroner will never face justice, our heroes are forced to find their own unique way out of trouble. It makes for a clever, unexpected finale, and upholds Chloe’s intelligence as a final girl.
A fine thriller, Play Dead’s ridiculous premise is elevated by execution, especially strong lead performances from Bailee Madison and Jerry O’Connell.
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