What is Larry in Come Play: Based on a real monster or a creepypasta?

One thing we know about Larry in Come Play is that he’s the main character of the book featured in the movie: Misunderstood Monsters. And one thing we know about Misunderstood Monsters is that it’s not real.

Thankfully. This pandemic has been rough enough. Larry befriends lonely people. There is no shortage of lonely people ever, but 2020 seems to have exacerbated that.

The trouble is, would a real friend kidnap you to who knows where to do who knows what with you? Personally, I think Larry is a sheep in wolf’s clothing. He says he wants to be your friend forever and ever but what he really wants is to eat you.

For this argument, I offer into evidence Exhibit A:

Does this look like a friendly face to you? Mostly I try not to judge people –or even monsters for that matter– on their looks, but this red-eyed, fanged menace would not strike me as friendly. And, as I stated either, nor would his motives.

So what is Larry in Come Play? How was he created? Let’s see what we can figure out.

Larry: Unidentified

Larry is not only a misunderstood monster, he’s also unidentifiable.

I couldn’t find anything where Come Play’s writer/director, Jacob Chase, definitively said Larry is based on something specific.

But I liked how Variety described Larry in its review: “…a gangly, 10-foot-tall, skeletal monster with poor posture, pained movements and limited lung capacity, whose sorrowful loneliness drives him to harmful extremes.”

There are definite nods to E.T. Maybe even a bit to the Slender Man creepypasta.

But there’s no way to categorize what species of monster Larry in Come Play is. Except if you want to put him in the “invented” category.

Larry as a puppet

However, I did find an interesting featurette on IMDB that talked about what went into making Larry. I thought he was mostly CGI. Turns out I was wrong.

He was a puppet created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. One of the lead puppeteers said Larry was designed from references to other creatures and artwork.

Sadly they didn’t specify what references, but if I find out I’ll be sure to write an update.

But something I thought was neat in the featurette was that the actors said it was helpful to work with a puppet, even if it was a bit creepy.

Um, yeah. That’s probably the scariest –and largest– puppet I’ve ever seen. What about you?

Watch Come Play

You can rent Come Play on Amazon for $19.99. (Is it worth it? Eh, for some it might be. You can read more about my thoughts on that in the review I wrote.)

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What kind of creature do you think Larry is based on?