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

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.

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.