DANIEL ISN’T REAL (March 2019)

DANIEL ISN’T REAL

(March 2019)

 “I had an imaginary friend when I was a kid. Umm… his name was Daniel, and he was my best friend. He was my only friend, really.”

The first nine minutes or so of Adam Egypt Mortimer’s Daniel Isn’t Real establishes just how pivotal the titular imaginary friend is in the life of Luke (Halloween’s Miles Robbins), and despite what he says to his therapist, what we see in those nine minutes is most definitely not, “… just, you know, kid stuff.”

Mortimer first made a significant impression on my geek radar with his comic book collaboration with Darick Robertson, Ballistic, so when time came for his feature directorial debut, Some Kind of Hate, I paid attention.

And continue to do so.

With his sophomore effort, co-written with Brian DeLeeuw (as Some Kind of Hate was)*, he’s again made me so happy I have.

As always, I am loathe to give too much away here at the Iguana, so let’s just say that the crux of Daniel Isn’t Real is the true nature of the imaginary friend, as played by Ah-nuld’s offspring, Patrick Schwarzenegger.

Is he really all in Luke’s troubled head? Or is there something darker involved here?

Check it out to find out!

Parting Shot 1: This one’s another ¡Qué horror! winner from SpectreVision, so Yay, Frodo!

Parting Shot 2: For any X-Philes out there, Robbins also played the teenaged William in a number of Season 11 episodes.

Parting Shot 3: For any Some Kind of Wonderful fans out there, Watts herself, Mary Stuart Masterson is here, as Claire, Luke’s troubled mother.

Parting Shot 4: Among those thanked at the tail end of the credits roll?

The Grant Morrison, as well as Kristan, and… Mr. NOBODY (who may or may not be the one from Doom Patrol… who knows?)…

“It was quite a spectacle, wasn’t it? All that blood…”

(Daniel Isn’t Real OS courtesy of impawards.com.)

* Though unlike Some Kind of Hate, which seems to have been written for the screen, Daniel Isn’t Real is based on DeLeeuw’s novel, In This Way I Was Saved.

A Rundown of the 13 Best Horror Movies I've Seen in the Past Year

[12 of 13]

SOME KIND OF HATE

(May 2015)

"Why are we f*cking waiting in the greenhouse?

"This is f*ckin’ bullshit.”

Bullied loner Lincoln (Ronen Rubinstein) is sent to the Mind’s Eye Academy, a place to “reset,” where troubled youth can work through their issues, so as to “destroy the impulses” that brought them there in the first place.

But since this is a horror film and not some After School Special, it’s safe to say things do not go to plan.

The feature debut of director (and co-writer) Adam Egypt Mortimer, Some Kind of Hate is a brutal depiction of how petty and cruel the youth can be. While I’ll avoid getting into exactly what the film is about, I will say it plays like a wicked, vicious inversion of fellow ¡Qué Horror! 2015 title Jamie Marks Is Dead (in which Rubinstein also, incidentally enough, appears).

As an aside, familiar genre face Noah Segan shows up here in a supporting role, and doubles as an Executive Producer.

This one isn’t inclined to pull punches, so be warned…

Parting Shot: I also highly recommend Mortimer’s comic book, the whacked-out science fiction opus, Ballistic, with art by Darick Robertson.

(Some Kind of Hate OS courtesy of twitchfilm.com.)

A Rundown of the 13 Best Horror Movies I've Seen in the Past Year

[7 of 13]

UNFRIENDED

(July 2014)

As with Nacho Vigalondo's Open Windows, Unfriended takes place entirely on a computer screen, this time, belonging to one Blaire Lily (Shelley Hennig, currently on MTV's Teen Wolf).

But while Vigalondo’s effort gets wildly ambitious as it unspools, Unfriended chooses to keep its narrative space controlled, and ultimately, it’s this choice that allows it to keep a tight focus on the horror movie shenanigans that ensue.

Directed by Leo Gabriadze from a script by Nelson Greaves, Unfriended has some heavy producing hitters in the forms of Timur Bekmambetov and Jason Blum.

It’s also an interesting double bill with fellow ¡Qué horror! 2015 title Some Kind of Hate, sharing some of its thematic concerns like the casually cruel emotional violence the youth can so callowly and callously inflict on each other.

(Unfriended Netherlands OS courtesy of impawards.com.)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2015

Candidate #15

UNFRIENDED

(July 2014)

As with Nacho Vigalondo's Open Windows, Unfriended takes place entirely on a computer screen, this time, belonging to one Blaire Lily (Shelley Hennig, currently on MTV's Teen Wolf).

But while Vigalondo’s effort gets wildly ambitious as it unspools, Unfriended chooses to keep its narrative space controlled, and ultimately, it’s this choice that allows it to keep a tight focus on the horror movie shenanigans that ensue.

Directed by Leo Gabriadze from a script by Nelson Greaves, Unfriended has some heavy producing hitters in the forms of Timur Bekmambetov and Jason Blum.

It’s also an interesting double bill with fellow ¡Qué horror! 2015 candidate, Some Kind of Hate, sharing some of its thematic concerns like the casually cruel emotional violence the youth can so callowly and callously inflict on each other.

(Unfriended Netherlands OS courtesy of impawards.com.)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2015

Candidate #14

SOME KIND OF HATE

(May 2015)

"Why are we f*cking waiting in the greenhouse?

"This is f*ckin’ bullshit.”

Bullied loner Lincoln (Ronen Rubinstein) is sent to the Mind’s Eye Academy, a place to “reset,” where troubled youth can work through their issues, so as to “destroy the impulses” that brought them there in the first place.

But since this is a horror film and not some After School Special, it’s safe to say things do not go to plan.

The feature debut of director (and co-writer) Adam Egypt Mortimer, Some Kind of Hate is a brutal depiction of how petty and cruel the youth can be. While I’ll avoid getting into exactly what the film is about, I will say it plays like a wicked, vicious inversion of fellow ¡Qué horror! 2015 candidate Jamie Marks Is Dead (in which Rubinstein also, incidentally enough, appears).

As an aside, familiar genre face Noah Segan shows up here in a supporting role, and doubles as an Executive Producer.

This one isn’t inclined to pull punches, so be warned…

Parting Shot: I also highly recommend Mortimer’s comic book, the whacked-out science fiction opus, Ballistic, with art by Darick Robertson.

(Some Kind of Hate OS courtesy of twitchfilm.com.)