Come to Daddy Parent Guide

Norval Greenwood (Elijah Wood) has received a letter from his estranged father inviting him to his home in the remote wilderness to reconnect. When he gets there, his father (Stephen McHattie) refuses to discuss the letter or his reasons for abandoning Norval as a child. Norval is increasingly concerned by his father’s erratic and aggressive behavior and begins to wonder why he came in the first place.

I’m going to put this disclaimer at the top: This is really not a film for everyone. In addition to the mountain of content issues (see below), the dark humor is, well, dark. If you’re not down to laugh at a stabbing or two, then you should probably find a cheerier flick.

For those of you fans of dark dramas (I include myself in this category) who find this stuff hilarious, this movie knocks it out of the park. The gags are well designed and well timed, and Elijah Wood’s performance sells them brilliantly. Stephen McHattie is wonderfully deranged, and Martin Donovan has the funniest deadpan delivery I’ve seen in a long time.

The film starts by being deliberately vague about whether it’s a horror or a comedy, but the longer it runs the more it turns into the latter. That said, it handles the horror well. The house in which the first two acts occur is pleasantly dark, creaky, and strange, which develops a good atmosphere.

Ok, here’s the catch. This movie is wickedly inappropriate for the duration of the runtime. I counted over 80 extreme profanities, but I think I missed some. Crude sexual language, bloody (if comedic) violence, and some nudity are the films features du jour. This is definitely not a film for kids. Or teens. Or sensitive adults. Or people with moral standards for their movies. Or most people, for that matter.

But if you can tolerate all that, there’s a good story in here about a confused young(ish) man trying to reconnect with his family, and who finds himself deeply involved in something he has never been prepared for. The film was shot around Tofino, British Columbia, which is a gorgeous spot and that natural beauty is well captured by the cinematography. Excellent performances from the leads and smart writing elevate the otherwise grotesque subject matter to a truly disgustingly dark comedy.