Play Dead review

By Simon Thompson

Director Carlos Goitia and writers Gonzalo Mellidi and Camillo Zaffora’s Play Dead is a predictable and generic viewing experience with one or two stylistic flourishes that prevent it from being completely forgettable. After an excellent opening the film devolves into every stock horror cliché in the book, to the extent it feels like its ticking off a shopping list of them. 

Play Dead follows a young woman named Alison (Paula Brasca) who has been abducted by a hulking maniac (Damian Castillo) and placed in a basement with all of his prior victims. To survive, Allison uses all of her wits and cunning and pretends to be dead to steadily make her way out of her horrific predicament. As she gets further and further through the house, she discovers that there is some kind of bizarre ceremony taking place at the top of it. 

The cinematography by Luciano Montes de Oca, takes its cues from both classic 70s horror such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and George A Romero’s The Crazies, as well as from video games aping  the same aesthetic such as the original Resident Evil, Alone In The Dark, and The Evil Within. As a result, the cinematography is a stylish mixture between dark colours such as grey and black (caked in heavy shadow),with a few splutters of yellow and similar lighter colours scattered around. 

The film is at its best in the opening twenty minutes, due to both an excellent establishing shot of Alison and the situation she is in, and also through most of the first act being dialogue free (reminiscent of Road Warrior) which creates a strong sense of atmosphere and shows Goitia’s skill at visual storytelling. 

The script by Mellidi and Zaffora sadly falls apart as soon as the second act ends. As much as I found myself drawn to the cinematography, the script is really what lets this movie down, as Mellidi and Zaffora run through every single horror cliché in the book and fail to do anything interesting with them. 

Paula Brasca gives a solid performance as Alison despite having little to work with, and Damian Castillo is suitably intimidating as the Leatherface-style antagonist. Castillo is saved by having very little dialogue, as he gets to use gestures and his overall physicality to great effect. 

Overall, Play Dead is a frustrating case of wasted potential, which spoils its interesting first (nearly) half an hour as it trudges through its completely unremarkable second and third acts.

Play Dead arrives on UK digital platforms on 9 March 2026.