User Reviews

A musician from Beverly Hills receives a letter from his estranged father asking him to come and visit him in his secluded cabin overlooking a lake n surrounded by woods. As audience we suspect that something is not right after the phone calls, but trust me the film is not at all predictable. It is very hilarious n well acted. Elijah Wood gave a good performance and Michael Smiley is hilarious with his ultimate weapons, a pen n a crossbow. The film is a bit slow in the beginning but picks up n then doesn't let go. I was laughing my guts out. I didn't like the director's Greasy Strangler. Found it gross n offensive. But this movie is less gross n more comedic.

Creative little flick with a few surprises. The acting in this is was great. Elijah Woods and Stephen Mcgattie shared some really good scenes. Dragged a little here and there but was still a decent film. The few unexpected twists were cool. The last scene kinda fell short in my opinion..6 stars not bad.

Judging from the reviews this is a love it or hate it film. Overall well acted, good directing and cinematography. The first half hour for me was not so interesting. Then a twist where you think you know what it's about. And then it gets weirder and weirder. It's not all gold, but more than enough to recommend a watch, just don't expect a standard Hollywood or horror movie.

First half is better than the second half. Around the 51 minute mark, the movie changes completely. The first half is 10/10. Second half is more of a 5/10. I wish it would've remained a father & son conflict as it was in the beginning. The enemies and their tactics are not very believable. There's a number of very unrealistic choices made by all the characters. But I was still entertained throughout, so I recommend it.

This movie was a very fun watch. Elijah Wood does a wonderful job selling his character as a priviledged adult. It does an excellent job grasping your attention in the first act, even though it tends to slow down a lot in the second. The third act successfully ramps it back up and this is where the movie shines as the over the top gorefest it is. There are a few suspenseful scenes that will keep you invested and glued to the screen, and there are quite a few interactions between characters thay will give you some laughs to ease the tension the rest of the movie lays on you. Fun movie to watch, and definitely a good movie to recommend.

Thankfully it's not a comedy-horror as you may expect. More of a quirky thriller with moments of over the top violence. Great set-up about a son of fruity hipster appearance looking to reconnect with his brutish estranged father. Solid performance from Wood and McHattie during the first half. Last half plays out fairly typically, not particularly bad, enjoyable enough, but nothing to get excited about.

Norval Greenwood (Elijah Wood) visits his estranged father after receiving an unexpected letter from him. He hasn't seen his father for decades. Then the father grows more bitter and drunken over time. The situation gets more and more surreal.

This is a nice little black comedy horror but I do think that it could have pushed harder. It could be funnier or more brutal in filming. It's all there but the movie seems to be holding back. Norval is like that. Elijah Wood plays the wimp here and he does grow a pair over time. I would have liked him to fight harder in the motel. I expected more henchmen coming for him. I expected more from this movie.

The plot seems innocuous at first, but then it gets weird then downright bizarre. This is in a good way though, as the plot twists in ways you can't imagine. It is an strange but enjoyable journey.

This is one crazy film for sure but it had me in stitches - perhaps because I am of the Frankie Boyle stable of merriment and my sarcaustic Scottish heritage and also perhaps why I thought Michael Smiley a fellow Gael made this movie for me and I have never met an Irish brother I have not liked and that has not changed after watching his gleeful and always on the spot performance.

I do not for the life of me understand the negative reviews - must be in the Mark Kermode snob-school of film appreciation!

From the opening intro with Elijah and his Himmler haircut to the fight with the excellent Stephen McHattie ending in more over the top lunacy in the motel, it was a riot of filthy humour and over the top violence and well what can I say - Being Scottish we love that style - "Pure dead brilliant" so it is!

Creepy , quirky , fun, brutal. confusing, annoying , drab, unbelievable.

i desperately wanted to "ten" this film, i couldnt do it. love elijah's movie on a whole, big fan of southern hemi films.

ok , its not bad, not bad - bad. but its far from a good horror/thriller. there is a few twists but you knew they were there, there is some brutal scenes but they are hard to believe, on occasional its funny but its not suposed to be.

the acting is fine, the camerawork and sound are great , lighting and so on is all good. it just misses a bit of oomph! it tries to be complicated and artistic possibly too much. i dont wanna go into the plot as it will spoil it for you that do watch it.

yeah its ok , but its just ok

So many times I watched a movie with bad reviews mainly rated by young people and it turned out I loved the movie. Can YouTube somehow take into consideration to show ratings per generation or age range?

I'm tired of trolls with short attention spans having a major impact on ratings, using reviews as an outlet for their primary reactions. Most of their comments are immature, stupid or ignorant.

Yeah, c'mon hate on me. I bet this probably sounds like grumpy old man talk to you.

Let's just respect the fact that there is a generation gap and I'd like to be able to sort the ratings by age range.

An eager-to-please son obeys the call of his estranged, reclusive father to come visit, but at their meeting the father is up for a fight ...

Interesting scenario that winds up the tension nice and tight in the first act. Then an unexpected full stop that got me looking forward to the possibilities, as the hero is left alone with his deep seated issues in a house that goes bump in the night.

And whaddya know - there's a totally offbeat plot development that introduces the mighty Michael Smiley in a sort of Frank Booth role. But it doesn't work. I think the problem is the knowing, facetious dialogue, foreshadowed in a ridiculous line about burping on demand, which drains all the menace - as if the screenwriter was embarrassed by his story. And for whatever reason, Smiley really is not convincing as a force of malevolence - probably because the bloody violence doesn't grow out of the ground prepared earlier in the movie. It's a random sequence, derivative of Martin McDonagh, which comes off as half-hearted juvenile fantasy by introducing throwaway characters after already throwing away the coroner and policeman from earlier on. A couple of scenes at the motel are ripped straight from Tarantino, but have nowhere near the same ear for dialogue. To be honest, I got a bit distracted during the underwhelming climax.

And where did the hunchback disappear to? What about the alcohol dependency? Why is the hero a musician? Why the reference to another slit-wrist suicide? Or to the Celestine Prophecies? Maybe the screenplay needed a few more trips through the shredder to grow its integrity.

The pace is pretty good, the performances excellent in the first act, and I liked the choice of odd music tracks. The score itself felt a bit dumpty-dumpty-dum in its humour. Apart from that, awesome location and photography.

Overall: Pregnant setup spills its load by imitating others.

You do not understand anything at a descriptive level. You expect an ending that is not really there. It seems that something went wrong in to justify the nonsense of the film. It is like entering a restaurant alone and paying the bill without having dinner. It is forced to try to make the story strange without the being interesting. Bah Long live who has money to throw in the cinema... It is to show in film schools and then say to the students and then say "Have you seen this movie? We showed it to you to understand what not to do". I am on an empty stomach and I have paid the bill.

I've been on a prolonged hiatus of sorts. With lockdown looming once more around here, I figured a few horror films would be an undemanding return to viewing. It's that time of year anyway.

This one seemed to hold some promise among the few I've managed to see. Apparently some of the same people who made the lovely Housebound would be involved. It seemed that it might have some of that New Zealand spark which I love, usually a quaint neighborhood providing the room for slimy inventiveness.

They were probably aiming for something of the sort. A man travels to a remote cabin to meet his estranged father but once there, a trapdoor opens beneath our feet. It does have some of that irreverent tone, blood spatters in a few places. But it kind of limps along, over just as it would have to get going. You have to be carried outside story at some point with these, staging faster than we have time to catch our breath.

But it's an oddly fitting metaphor for the film that Elijah stumbles awkwardly through a story, always slipping up, never really improvising even when he does.

Oh what could have been.

Wispy mustachioed, fashionista hipster Elijah Wood is absolutely delightful as a bug-eyed, angle haired, floppy clothed, privileged son, on an unsettling journey to reconnect with his three decades estranged father. Soon Norval's limited edition gold iPhone is smashed during a drunken selfie episode as the family reunion commences.

With a wine bottle in one hand and a meat cleaver in the other, the fabulous Stephen McHattie provides a belligerent and menacing foe as the crazed papa. There's a chess set in the middle of all the verbal sparring, which as it turns out, is not just a red herring, but a stinky rotten fish. instead of a clever gender duel, "Come To Daddy" comes totally off the rails and morphs into a bizarre, way over the top physical thrill ride that leaves many of the clever bits behind.

Not that that's a bad thing. It is just a weird thing. Like a double feature in one schizophrenic sitting. Perhaps folks will find pleasure in each half, perhaps not. The set up is certainly presented with snide snark, and creates an unsettling tension. The film looks great, with a velvety saturation glow. The performances are spot on. And the accelerating plot certainly has nary a dull moment, in a the best B-movie tradition.

Come for the outrageous roller coaster, but strap yourself in.

• hipCRANK

It was full of dry humour laced with oh no moments. Something I enjoyed. A movie to consider.

He is so good in this movie but the whole movie is great. A 30 something goes to see his estranged father only to find intrigue and infighting. Turns out his father is a huge no goodnik who has all kinds of secrets.

I beginning to think all these other reviews are fake and from the cast or friends of. This film is NOT COMEDY, it is NOT HORROR and it is not a THRILLER. This film is beyond meanlingless with absolute no purpose except to be another form of art. The dialogue is nothing special, the character building is nothing special, there was 0 laughs, there was 0 fear or anything really horror related - blood and death doesnt mean something is horror genre. And there was no thriller aspects, 1 single twist in the film and it happens in the first half of the film... Dont waste your time.

Strangely Entertaining. Lots of twist and lots of gore but in the end well acted and surprisingly entertaining.

It was a slow start, never picks up and unfortunately any potential was wasted, with the most horrific thing about this movie being it's god awful writing

An endlessly shocking thrill ride it was not, the on screen violence probably had a total run time of 2 mins, and the actions of some of the characters makes little sense other than to progress the poor excuse for a story

some of the actions and inaction of the characters is mindless, it all feels so linear and unnatural.

You get an uneasy feeling due to the dialogue of some characters but it never goes anywhere, they make no other appearance and don't help the plot either, only serving as bizarre red herrings,

It feels like the Director desperately wants to create a cult film and figured by having odd characters, strange dialogue, good cast, obscure violence and throwing everything at the wall that something will stick and perhaps some people actually do see all these elements and are fooled into believing its so weird it must be good, this also gives the Director a great out when It comes to criticism as he can claim he didn't want to be conventional, however it all comes off as arrogant and pretentious.

The cast is fantastic and fantastically wasted here, I thoroughly enjoyed 'A field in England' featuring Michael Smiley which really was a dark and thrilling low budget featuring film.

Unremarkably NZ media appears unable to give the film a negative review as it seems the director is a treasure in the industry and their reviews certainly let you know it, as well as how horrifying, brilliant and shocking the film is, an if it wasn't the unforgivable garbage that it is, there's actually many films that do low budget over the top violence well such as 'Brawl in cell block 99' 'Green Room' or the firefly trilogy,

the violence in this film however is exclusively brief and intended to shock, like a cheap joke, Seriously don't waste you're time on this one

I conclude this is a very conceited film which never gets off the ground, nothing about it is nuanced, the humor is sparse, but this does nothing to save its clunky pacing and terrible story and writing

Elijah Wood gives a very good performance as an abandoned son seeking closure in this charmingly whacky comic thriller. "Come to Daddy" initially shows an endearing strangeness that's reinforced by the camera angles and casually elegant framing. The plot substantially nuttier. Enjoyable performances from Wood and Donovan hold the film to its liberating goals, even as it descends into what can only be described as bloody chaos. Absurd, audacious, colourful and moving. Buckle up and enjoy the ride up to the end. You will enjoy this movie.

I enjoyed it. It gets brownie points for originality and some subtle but funny scenes.

Do not waste your time with this pile of dump. Zero plot, zero laughs, zero nothing. Just wannabe artsy scribble.