No Spoilers
Daniel Isn’t Real is a story about a nice family with a great little son named Luke. One day our great little son takes a stroll outside and witnesses the aftermath of a shotgun shooting at a local coffee shop. As his little mind attempts to come to terms with what he’s seeing, another little boy by the name of Daniel shows up and invites him to play. Now no one can see Daniel but Luke. His mother is introduced to the invisible Daniel and she takes some solace in her son’s vivid imagination, even when Luke blames Daniels for some mishaps, mother see’s it as cute. Until one day when Daniel tell Luke to add all mom’s psychiatric pills in the blender for her smoothie. Mother becomes very sick, finds the empty bottle of pills in Luke’s room, and begs Luke what has he done. Luke of course responds with I didn’t do it, it was Daniel. Well, mother notifies good son that there’ll be no more of this Daniel crap, cause Daniel Isn’t Real, and together they go through a cute little ritual where Luke locks away Daniel in a creepy old dollhouse. Luke is aware of the bad thing Daniel has done and wants nothing further to do with Daniel. The End.
Wrong.
Daniel Isn’t Real then cuts to when Luke is about 18 or so, in college, and on his way back home to visit his troubled mom. Mom seems to have some psychiatric issues but both are able to overlook them and live with it due to love and caring. I want to add a little aside here. If you live in a family with troubled folks, such as Luke here, then you’ll be able to understand the ‘overlook’ part I mentioned above. I personally have lived with a parent who was troubled and believe me, much is overlooked in the name of love and caring in these situations.
Daniel is now back home for a time and checks on his mother and deals with her deteriorating state. They’re both happy to be together during this short respite from school and this time together is good for both them.
As Daniel peruses his old household and reminisces about when he was younger, he revisits the creepy old dollhouse he locked Daniel away in as a kid. Could Daniel still be in there?
Daniel Isn’t Real was not a blockbuster hit. You can probably forecast themes of corroboration and jealousy as you continue to watch the movie but the movie is fun to watch. More likely than not you’ve seen movies with similar themes in the past with tropes and situation you will immediately recognize. I just did the review on this movie cause it was a fun watch and I’m going to cut the review short here so I don’t spoil any more of the movie for you.
Daniel Isn’t Real was directed by Adam Egypt Mortimer. Written by Brian DeLeeuw (based on the novel ‘in This Way I Was Saved” by) and Adam Egypt Mortimer. Featuring Miles Robbin, Patrick Schwarzenegger, and Sasha Lane. Released in 2019 as a horror fantasy mystery crime drama horror with an IMDB rating of 6.1.
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