Leading with quotes about fatherhood from Shakespeare ("The sins of the father are to be laid upon the children") and Beyonce ("There is no one else like my daddy"), Kiwi director Ant Timpson's debut feature film Come to Daddy (2019) follows a pretentious wannabe artist from Beverly Hills who pays a visit to his estranged father's home along the remote Oregon coast after receiving a mysterious letter.
From the very beginning of the film, things feel out of place as Norval (Elijah Wood) - an obvious outsider with his floppy hat, strange haircut and Lorde-designed, limited edition gold cell phone – immediately clashes with his crude, Hawaiian shirt-wearing alcoholic father (Stephen McHattie), who meets Norval's appearance outside his home in equal parts surprise and derision.
While Norval is desperate for his father's approval, going so far as to lie about his relationship with Elton John ("You could say he's like a father to me"), his expectation of a warm and loving parent is quickly shattered as his father, with his "raisin eyes", digs deeper still into Norval's fragile psyche.
What soon follows is a series of strange events which increase in intensity as the self-pitying Norval, a recovering alcoholic with issues of self-harm and unresolved daddy issues, is left with his thoughts while staying in his father's 1960s UFO-shaped house - a home out of time with the Pacific Northwest's picturesque, sometimes ominous, landscape where things go bump in the night.
The film - which jumps between fake-out jump scares and body horror with a thriller exploring the fraught relationship between a father and son - is not for everyone. With its at times squeamish close-ups and extreme acts of violence, followed by the exploration of Norval's emotional state as he untangles the oddball plot alongside the audience, the genre-hopping film and its surprising emotional depth can be jarring for some.
Come to Daddy, featuring comedian and actress Madeleine Sami, made its New Zealand premiere to raucous applause at Auckland's Civic Theatre last night.
The film, rated R16, is currently screening at the New Zealand International Film Festival.
SHARE ME