Daniel Isn't Real (2019) - Fight Club Dialled Higher

The premise of Daniel Isn’t Real (2019) is an already heard, yet interesting one: is a young boy’s imaginary friend really imaginary? Luke (Miles Robbins), is an introverted college student who’s also the primary carer for his mother, who’s childhood imaginary friend comes back to make him ‘cool,’ so that he hangs with the right crowd and picks up girls, until he takes it all completely too far.

This could have been compelling, if the movie had played more on the question of the validity of the alter ego of Daniel (Patrick Schwarzenegger), and explored Luke's psyche a little more. However, like most supernatural horror movies, it confirms our answer for us without too much wondering. Yet, it still attempts to create a monster with rules and a history, which does make for a few creative ideas involving a doll house.

What’s strange about Daniel Isn’t Real is that there is a clear parallel to the ideas in Fight Club (without going into too many spoilers) – particularly when it comes to the relationship of the two main men. With a stretch, it could be said that the queer vibes that emanate from a few select scenes in the Fight Club novel are accidentally oblivious of this reading. Daniel Isn’t Real seems to take these same queer vibes, dial them up to one hundred, and yet still seem completely oblivious of this reading. Again, an examination of this – of a teenager’s own sexuality and relationship to their sexuality (whether that be gay, or simply evaluating themselves as a sexual being), could have made for a film that has something more to say. Perhaps that would push it too far on the drama side for horror.

Leading on from the spoiler of Fight Club, Daniel Isn’t Real is the opposite to it when it comes to tension. Where Fight Club keeps its reveal and messes around with time in order to keep the mystery active, Daniel Isn’t Real gives the audience the whole backstory straight away. There is no need to guess what happened to make Daniel disappear, because we are told immediately. No need to guess that Daniel might not be as friendly and helpful as he seems, because we see from the first ten minutes that he is not. Therefore, there is little suspense, as we know (if we ever doubted) that it’s all going to go downhill, and end badly. It makes the movie predictable and defeatist, without the twists and turns that Fight Club brings.

However, both boys do a strong job in portraying their characters and the nuances that come with them. Luke is a sympathetic character, given the situation with his mother, who the audience does want to find himself and succeed. There is not a huge amount of bad decisions made that takes one out of the movie, either. Overall, it’s a watchable, fairly interesting take on a well-known idea that just has a few strange ideas to give another look at.

Interestingly, Daniel Isn’t Real is based on a novel from the viewpoint of an imaginary friend and doesn’t seem to be horror. This is a really interesting concept and idea that I plan to check out some time in the future.