COME TO DADDY: A Vicious, Twisted Terror

Producer Ant Timpson’s films usually come with promises of gory trippiness, dripping with gooey 1980s-esque surrealism and tongue-in-cheek charm. His previous production of Turbo Kid has proven to fit this formula of the giddy and rebellious. Now he finally takes the reigns as director for a film that guarantees all the vicious quirks, but housed within a rather robust thriller with twists aplenty. It’s a film that keeps the audience guessing at what will happen next as much as wincing about where someone is getting stabbed.

Horrific Homecoming

Elijah Wood plays Norval Greenwood, a man with a silly haircut and a music career. He grew up almost entirely without a father, as his dad left him when he was only five and he hasn’t seen him since. Now all grown up, Norval hopes he can reconnect with his father at his beach home in Oregon. It’s a bit of a change from being raised in Beverly Hills, but Norval is willing to let his dad back into his life after receiving an invitation.

When Norval arrives, however, his reunion with dear old dad is off to a very rocky start. He takes note of how his father seems cynical, clumsy, drunk and very insulting. In one of the tensest scenes, Norval talks about his career in music and talks up how he knows Elton John. Norval’s dad, eager to prove him wrong, pretends to call up Elton for the purposes of shaming his son. All of this seems odd to Norval. Why would his own father call him out to Oregon just to spit on him? Does his dad really hate him that much to do such a thing? There’s something off about this visit and it doesn’t take long before things get strange, violent and gross.

A Twisty Mystery

Wood is perfectly suited for a film like this that shifts between being darkly uncomfortable and intensely surprising. He looks on as the perfect audience surrogate of someone who isn’t sure how to react when someone comes at him with a knife. It’s intriguing to watch someone as conflicted as Norval try to respond when given only one option of survival against people who want to gut him like a pig. He is scared but also creative enough to know there’s a lot of household items that can be used to batter, bruise and stab awful people who want him dead. One scene, in particular, involves toilet paper, sandwich wrap, and a poker.

Norval does have a more relatable aspect to him, as somebody unsure how to respond and come to terms with himself. Early in his visit, Norval mentions to his father that he’s a recovering alcoholic and is then tormented by his dad to have a drink. This addiction haunts him just as much as his father’s absence, turning the dormant walls into rattling nightmares. There’s also an exceptionally hilarious bit of odd humor when Norval has a brief debate about the healthiness of ear cartilage versus bodily fluids.

Strange Strangers

Nearly everyone Norval encounters seems to be hiding some secret or a desire to kill him. Without giving too much away to preserve the thrill of discovery, I’ll address the actors at play rather than their characters. Martin Donovan brings a great deal of sincerity and determination for a man who spends most of the film as a bloody mess of pain and torture. Michael Smiley has great grossness to his presence as a man of habits as filthy as his jacket probably smells, perfectly embodying the man you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley he most likely smokes at.

There are numerous supporting performances that resonate so well they could easily be one-scene players in a David Lynch production. But I have to give it up for Stephen McHattie, who slips effortlessly into the role of an untrustworthy person that can be an intimidating jerk. He eases into all his scenes with a certain sleaze of slowly grating on the nerves and whittling down Norval to the child he once was. Going along with the theme of the three actors I’ve mentioned, there’s a brilliance to how Timpson stages these aged actors as real vicious men who can still bite with overwhelming intimidation, which is saying quite a bit for a film that aims high with absurdity.

Mounting with Manic

The film has a lot of grit and twists that come in just about every scene. While this format has a certain intoxication, it also levels off in its oddness. The climax of the film involves a motel, orgies, a prostitute, a car crash and a brain injury. Not a bad way to go out, but this comes after so much strangeness that it is kinda par for the course. There’s some point during the third act where the swirling of daddy drama and vicious violence peters out to a degree that is still pleasing but lacks a certain punch as the twists dwindle and an emotional core settles.

Still, I have to give it up for Timpson for keeping the weird coming as strong while still keeping an emotional core in check. When the dust has settled and the stabbings and gore have ceased, there’s still a story of one man trying to reconnect with his family and his past. Trying to make that reach can be a tough order after not just the years of neglect but the fear of being gutted by murderous men. Yet this film is just surreal enough to find a moment to make that bonding touch, brief and diced though it may be.

Conclusion: Come to Daddy

Come to Daddy oozes Timpson’s remarkable devotion to the emotional, surreal and vicious with grotesque gusto. There’s enough earnest oddness here for Elijah Wood to shine more like a gritty underdog than the guy with a goofy haircut. Though such a film is a tough tightrope of staging the uneasy drama and wince-worthy violence, it mostly succeeds at making Timpson’s directorial debut a wild thrill.

What did you think of Come to Daddy? Let us know in the comments.

Come to Daddy was released in theaters in the U.S. on February 7, 2020. For all international release dates, click here.