Come To Daddy

This review may contain spoilers!

A delightfully well-made gore/horror that loses itself significantly less than halfway through the feature. I would give Come To Daddy a 6.5/10.

Come To Daddy follows a young man, Norval, who is invited to reconnect with his absentee father in a remote beachside cabin. The film has a really unique narrative style, blending mounting thriller elements with a very witty sense of humour. This especially works strongly in the films brilliant first act which explores the disjointed relationship between Norval and his father. The dynamic between these two characters is a blend of really complex emotions, nervousness, a desire to impress, vulnerability, indifference and a violent sense of disdain. I think the film examines this strange relationship in a way that is wholly unique and quite simply the defining strength of the feature. The cinematography for the film is stunning, taking advantage of stylistic sets to show enchanting and attentive detail. The score for the film is a light poignant melody that grows gradually discordant as the plot progresses, it is a musical descent that really does wonders for the tone.

Elijah Wood, who played Norval Greenwood, is a really fascinating protagonist who seems desperate to achieve his onscreen father's acceptance or approval; Wood is uncertain and not the most confident characters which craft a very grounded and relatable role. Garfield Wilson, who played Ronald Plum, is extremely entertaining as the fairly incompetent police officer; Wilson's intentional mismanagement of dealing with grief creates one of my favourite scenes of the film.

However, the best performance came from Stephen McHattie, who played Gordon. McHattie is a very stoic, intimidating presence who sets you at edge almost immediately. I found myself trying to read McHattie and who he actually was throughout the feature and I liked that he was impassive enough that it was hard to really know. The moments of connection between him and Wood seem like an extreme effort for McHattie, there isn't a chemistry there so much as an understanding. This approach to forging a relationship works wonders for what we ultimately come to understand about the two roles. Gordon is an unpredictable drunk who leaps to violence and suffers no fools, he never really feels like a father figure and in a lot of ways it's probably the most honest thing about Gordon we come to understand.

The film really suffers once we come to understand the 'big twist' about the truth of Norval's father, both his identity and his past. I felt let down because up until that point the film had been delivering a really complex character study of a father/son relationship; suddenly I was left with a slasher thriller in which our main protagonist was slowly and methodically picking off a small band of criminals. This fight for survival storyline was very derivative and didn't offer any surprises. At this point the film being so humorous started counting against it too, the antagonists came across as witless goons who didn't possess the ability to intimidate the audience. The editing for the film set a pace that tended to be slower than the film really needed to be, cuts took too long to happen and the run time really stretched out.

Madeleine Sami, who played Gladys, is very monotonous in her approach to her coroner role; the chemistry between her and Wood feels a bit forced and Sami isn't given enough opportunity to work in some comedy which would have been her strength. Martin Donovan, who played Brian, is extremely bland as Wood's onscreen biological father; Donovan only manages to embrace one type of supportive mood and conforms to a generic father figure persona. Michael Smiley, who played Jethro, is the films main antagonist and probably the one most in need of a recast; Smiley is supposed to be the biggest threat of the lot but he approaches every scene with his comedic foot forward which really undercuts the essence of most of his scenes.