Play Dead (2022) Review – A Farcical and Forgettable Morgue Thriller

Welcome to Knockout Horror. Today we will be reviewing cat and mouse thriller Play Dead from 2022.

Yet another low budget Tubi horror

Directed by Patrick Lussier who you may know as the director of the fairly crappy 2009, 3D remake of My Bloody Valentine. To be honest, I suppose the above statement isn’t exactly true for Play Dead. I mean, it has a director that has made a well-known horror movie in the past. It appears to have a hair and makeup department, the budget stretched to LED lighting, and they managed to cast Jerry O’Connell as a sinister coroner. I don’t actually know if this movie counts at all.

After attempting to commit an armed robbery. A teenager needs the help of his older sister to retrieve a cellphone that will implicate him in the crime. The only problem? The cellphone was taken to the morgue with the dead body of his accomplice. Breaking in doesn’t appear to be an option so it’s time for something altogether more ridiculous. The siblings score some Propofol and put their plan into action. Yes, seriously!

Morgues make a fairly common venue for horror movies. We have the fantastic The Autopsy of Jane Doe, the watchable The Corpse of Anna Fritz, the terrible Afterlife and a few others. Whereas many of them are pretty decent and Afterlife has Christina Ricci in the buff for over an hour, Play Dead has absolutely nothing to offer. 

After injecting herself with Propofol and passing out under a bridge. Our protagonist bucks the trend of dying from such endeavours. Instead waking up fresh as a daisy, feeling tremendously refreshed, on a slab in the local morgue. Obviously wanting to preserve her dignity from all of those pervy corpses, she grabs a sheet and sets about the task of finding the phone that will implicate her brother. 

An absolutely ridiculous plot

I’m actually shocked that someone pitched this story and another person thought “Yeah, that sounds good. Let’s do it!”. Is this simply an example of folie à deux or are movie makers really that desperate for ideas? Whatever, this plot is farcical beyond belief.

It’s one thing to expect people to believe that paramedics wouldn’t do a cursory exam when finding someone passed out under a bridge. You know, to check on things like whether they are actually still alive or not. But to ask people to believe that someone can shoot a bunch of Propofol into their arm, pass out, and wake up completely fine a few hours later, is utterly ridiculous. 

“The siblings score some Propofol and put their plan into action. To ask people to believe someone can shoot Propofol into their arm, pass out, and wake up completely fine a few hours later is utterly ridiculous.”

I rant more about this is in our Play Dead Ending Explained. Check that out if you share my disapproval of this ridiculous plot.

It keeps getting worse

As the movie goes on, the plot becomes more and more ridiculous. A somewhat promising moment of creeping around the dark and eerie mortuary hints at a weak pulse. That hope almost instantly flatlines, however, as the story is in such a rush to show its hand. There are a few brief, unsuccessful resuscitation attempts but to no avail. The movie is left to die in a puddle of mediocre thriller tropes and purge fluid.

Everything here is so familiar and so predictable. The mortuary setting is completely wasted, never used to actually create any scares or to effectively build tension. Our protagonist never feels particularly over-matched, either, typically outsmarting our clumsy coroner with ease. The sense of threat is almost completely absent. A big reveal somewhere halfway through the movie plays out like the first two minutes of chewing juicy fruit gum. It’s initially promising but almost instantly woefully disappointing. It’s all so silly and incredibly milquetoast.

“A big reveal halfway through plays out like the first two minutes of chewing juicy fruit gum: initially promising but almost instantly woefully disappointing. It is all so silly and incredibly milquetoast.”

As the movie begins to draw to a close, the plot becomes even more farcical and even more unbelievable, taking a turn that is fairly positive for the action element of the movie, but incredibly negative for the believability of the story. As the final scenes play out you will be wondering how this story was ever commissioned. There are so many questions. So many things that are beyond unlikely, and so many things that make no sense at all.

A completely unlikable cast

Play Dead‘s cast is utterly obnoxious. We are supposed to sympathise with the situation of our protagonist Chloe (Bailee Madison) and her brother. Her father has offed himself, probably sick of living with his brat kids. His life insurance didn’t pay out and she really doesn’t want to get a job to pay for the house.

Her little brother, T.J. (Anthony Turpel), is also suffering from a sticky mattress and doesn’t want to work so he hatches a plan. Let’s rob some poor bastard to get some mortgage money. These two are insanely unlikable and difficult to root for.

Bailee Madison, as Chloe, felt completely out of place here. I feel like Olivia deJonge, or someone similar, would have been a way better option. Madison is pretty good at crying on cue; outside of that she brings almost nothing to this role. Her range of facial expressions is lacking, her line delivery is poor and she really lacks in charisma.

“Jerry O’Connell does a great job here, making for a genuinely interesting and sinister antagonist. Unfortunately, he is given very few lines and is a bit of a bumbling idiot.”

Anthony Turpel is dishwater dull as T.J., bringing absolutely nothing to the role. He stutters wildly in parts before speaking clear as day in others, as if he had rehearsed certain parts excessively and others not at all. Chris Lee, as Ross, is okay. On the plus side, Chris Butler is great fun as Sheriff Duggan, provoking a few laughs and generally doing a great job. I also enjoyed Jorge-Luis Pallo as Mannix.

O’Connell does a great job here, too, making for a genuinely interesting and sinister antagonist. Unfortunately, he is given very few lines and, as far as antagonists go, is a bit of a bumbling idiot – something which massively robs the movie of tension.

Our Scoring Philosophy: A Fair Fight

Horror is a genre that thrives thanks to indie film makers and low budget creators. At Knockout Horror, we firmly believe that every movie that we review deserves a fair fight. That's why we grade on a curve. Our star ratings are all about context, judging a film on what it achieves with the resources it has.

A 4-star rating for a scrappy indie horror made for $10,000 is a testament to its ingenuity and raw power. A 4-star rating for a $100 million blockbuster means it delivered on its epic promises. We don't compare them side-by-side; we celebrate success in every weight class, from the back-alley brawler to the heavyweight champion. Please keep this in mind when considering star ratings.

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