Love the one you’re with. Or at least try to. And make sure to keep in touch. A son winds up in quite the adventure when he receives a message from home in Come To Daddy. Perhaps better suited for that gloom and doom fall Halloween season nevertheless this 90 minute shocker from Mongrel Media is full value if you’re into a good old-fashioned scare. Go along and enjoy the vibe at Vancouver’s trendy Rio Theatre in hip Commercial Drive and don’t confuse this film with Mark Wahlberg’s Daddy’s Home or do so at your peril.
Fans of Peter Jackson’s monumental Lord of the Rings saga may well be wondering whatever happened to the original cast. Young Elijah Wood resurfaces in a complete role reversal. Top billing goes to this lad who has now matured into quite a fine adult actor. Here Wood stars as wayward urbanite Norval Greenwood. “Summoned” to see his father after a long absence that long and winding road leads to a picture-perfect home in remote wilderness. Just the kind of getaway suited to Harry and Megan being far from the maddening crowd, the prying press and prime for mystery, danger and – wait for it – murder!
Face to face meetings can be dramatic. Out In the woods Norval learns the hard way that there may be danger around every corner. So what was supposed to be an amicable reunion turns out to be a descent into hell. Director Ant Timpson makes his feature film debut and he pulls off a wicked dark tinged horror fantasy sure to make your skin crawl. Bolstered by gorgeous cinematography highlighting Tofino and Vancouver plus lots of very salty crude language befitting these wacko folks Come to Daddy is a guilty pleasure that’s creepy and surreal. You feel a sense of claustrophobia as the tension ramps up in this winner take all fight for survival.(Robert Waldman)