Daniel Isn’t Real — Daniel Isn’t Real
Daniel Isn’t Real is a 2019 US production- it's the second full-length feature from Adam Egypt Mortimer who co-wrote & directed the film. Before this his first feature was Some Kind Of Monster- a 2015 horror film that followed the vengeful spirit of a bullied student, which got good press at the time of release. On from the start of Daniel Isn’t Real it’s clear the director he has both an eye for macabrely fantastic & grimly troubling- and through-out the film he moves between this two axis.
The film focuses in on Luke(Mile Robbins)- when we first meet him he’s an awkward & inward child who seemingly imagines up Daniel- the pair do everything together, but one day Daniel tells Luke to put drugs in his mothers drink- she nearly dies, then out of desperation she insists that Daniel must be banished, so Luke puts him in a grand playhouse in their family home. Fast forward some years & Luke is now a college freshman- finding it difficult to cope, he goes to see his shrink who suggests he tries & contacts with his past issues & his imaginary friend…he does so and things take a very dark, at times tripped-out, and later bloody turn. Added into mix we get Luke’s disturbed & suicidal mother, and an unpleasant & obnoxious female art student, who becomes a sort of love interest.
The whole thing is certainly filmed and executed well- with the mix of grim & troubling reality/ mental health issues, and darkly twisted fantasy working well. The cast is largely good- Mile Robbins is believable as the troubled teen, as is Patrick Schwarzenegger( yep Arnolds Son) as the devil-may-care/ sociopath Daniel. The main issue/ failing of the film is that none of the characters are in any way likable or endearing, so as a result one is never routing for or bothered what happens to them- yes it looks good, and the balance of real-life grimness & dark fantasy is done in a heady & at times very grimly trippy manner- but you need to care/ feel something, and sadly I didn’t so as result the whole thing felt rather a chore to get through. There’s no doubt Mortimer is a talent, and I’ll be curious to see what he produces in the future- he just needs to add in more heart/, and glimmers of hope- then I think I can see him going places. Daniel Isn’t Real is certainly one of the more original/ distinctive modern horror pictures I’ve seen, and I wanted to like it more- it just lacks likable humanity, which any film needs to succeed.
On the extras side, we get a commentary track from director/ co-writer Adam Egypt Mortimer- this is an intelligent, in-depth & far reaching track with Mortimer talking about filming styles, shot set-ups, the actors & his influence, one of the main been Jacobs Ladder. It’s one of the better director tracks I’ve heard, and if you enjoyed the film I’m sure you get a lot from it.
Next, we get Beyond the Garden of Earthly Delight-this is an eighteen-minute visual essay by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas- this is fairly interesting, though it is more towards the scholarly side of things. We get a twenty-minute on film interview with the writer/ director. Deleted scenes, alternate ending, & trailers.
In finishing I certainly appreciate & admire Adam Egypt Mortimer push with Daniel Isn’t Real to create something a little different & darkly psychedelic with-in modern horror genre- but I’m afraid for me it was just too grim, with characters I cared little or nothing for. Never the less hats off to Arrow for putting this out, and doing there usual great job with extras/ it’s presentation.