Little Luke stumbles upon the aftermath of a madman being gunned down by cops, and at the scene of the crime, meets another little kid, Daniel, who asks him if he wants to go play. Soon the two are best friends, even though no one but Luke can see Daniel. After being tricked into almost killing his mother with a pill overdose by his new spectral buddy, Luke consigns Daniel to the dollhouse in his room, effectively trapping his "imaginary" friend, and imprisoning him.
Years later, Luke (Miles Robbins, MOZART IN THE JUNGLE, HALLOWEEN) returns home for a visit to his disturbed and schizophrenic mother, and decides to release Daniel (Patrick Schwarzenegger, SCOUTS GUIDE TO THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE, DEAR ELEANOR), in what Luke thinks is a symbolic gesture, releasing his own imagination. But the situation is far more literal than that, and soon the also aged Daniel is wreaking havoc, and endangering those Luke loves.
Adam Egypt Mortemer's DANIEL ISN'T REAL is one of the freshest, most original possession films in the recent glut of similarly themed movies, and a real watershed for the writer director. The two stars, both the children of superstar couples in real life, absolutely stand on their own and prove to be their own forces to be reckoned with. Patrick Schwarzenegger is hilarious, sinister, and twisted as the yattering presence of Daniel, always on Luke's back, and Miles Robbins straddles paranoid, crazy, cool, and downright freaked out masterfully. Hinging more on drama and character, than sensationalism and deep scary voices, and the trappings we've become used to, DANIEL ISN'T REAL expands the idea of possession, while still throwing a couple nods to the ultimate classic of the genre, THE EXORCIST, but in clever and very subtle ways. It's also great to see a film that is so "New York", something we don't get enough of anymore.
- 8/10
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