 Thanks for checking out this movie review video. So this is for the 2019 release and shutter exclusive Daniel isn't real now This one obviously is available for streaming on shutter at the moment. That's where I watched it That's why it is a shutter Exclusive so I'm gonna tell you upfront no spoilers on this one because it's such a new release and if people want to watch it I encourage you to go ahead and watch it if you saw the trailer and you were very interested I'd say go ahead and watch it. It's a mixed bag for me I'll let you know that up front. There are things. I really liked about it. There are things. I really hated about it It's a mixed bag and obviously I'll talk about that a little bit so Directed by Adam Egypt Mortimer who did such films as some kind of hate which is also available on shutter right now I may end up checking that one out and at New Year and he did the New Year's Eve segment of the holidays horror anthology film Which I watched that but I don't remember what the New Year's Eve one was so I Can't recall it at the moment Written partially by Mortimer himself and then also Brian Deleu This is actually based on a book by Brian Deleu, which has a much better name than Daniel isn't real and that is in this way I was saved. I will say watching the movie makes me more interested in actually reading the book I bet the book is a lot better Because I feel like some of the stuff at play in this is probably just a lot better Reading it than seeing it in a visual medium. Just more impactful in my opinion But I don't know for sure because I haven't read it obviously But Brian Deleu has also written scripts for some kind of hate curvature and Paradise Hills, which not familiar with Elijah Wood is one of the producers with this because it's done by Spectre vision And spec he's involved with Spectre vision. So I know they've had success with a lot of films From what I've heard this has gotten some pretty good reviews, especially within the horror community So I was very very excited to check it out. But like I said Some good and some bad for me I Will say over all my biggest issue with it is they needed to tone a lot of things down And I say a lot of things because I mean some of the acting needed to be toned down a lot of the music Really needed to be toned down They kind of socked you in the face repeatedly and beat you over the head with it too much Because as we know music is used a lot to tell you how to feel in certain instances and kind of drive those feelings home Appropriately now when it's the music is so overbearing and so in your face and you can't escape just the The it's like screaming in your face is basically what this music ends up being like a lot of the time It's like calm down calm down. I understand what you're telling me. I understand what you're trying to do Just stop yelling at me like that's what it felt like is like the film was yelling at me And I'm like I get it. I know what you're trying to say We can get there together, but just stop stop yelling at me So that's just kind of how it felt to me. That was one of the big issues and like I said also the acting There's one person in particular acting wise I really wanted to like their performance and I really didn't and that was Patrick Schwarzenegger. Yes, Arnold Schwarzenegger son So this is the thing. I don't know if the issue was his acting or how he was directed to act So I don't know if it was how the director How Mortimer wanted him to play the character or if it was what he chose to do or how he delivered lines Or just delivered his acting his character is Very overstated in the way he does things. I'll talk a little bit more about that later. And I think that a Lot of the issues with acting spawned from his character, which is Daniel I have thoughts. I'll get to it. Oh, but I do need to say real quick. What was his name? Crap. I put it further down Robbins Miles Robbins The guy who plays the main character of Luke Outstanding that guy did a heck of a job with his role. It was a demanding role He brought it. He showed up on set and he Really really grabbed that role. He made it his own and he performed extremely well I was very impressed with his performance in this film a bunch of the other acting was was really good as well It gets uncomfortable very early in the film But then it actually backs off a little bit but it's kind of good in the sense that The the level of discomfort and how they pulled it off was really good in the beginning Those particular events and if you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about and then they kind of back it off a little bit and then But the I'm not gonna say the problem The good thing about that is that even though it backs off and you feel a little more ease at that point You still have just not even in the back of your head Like in the front of your mind just thinking this type of stuff can resurface again And you kind of feel like it's gonna resurface at any moment So I like that aspect of how they set the film up the intro to it getting into the whole thing is really good although I will also say I think Once you get through the entire film for me personally I believe that a bunch of the events in the very beginning Maybe would have been better served to reveal towards the end instead of giving you that Stuff right up front And this goes more to like the you know toning things down making it more of an understated film Would have played a lot better in my opinion. This one's just too Brash and just you know, let's just throw all this stuff right out at you. It's it's Far from one of those movies that you have to work for it's a we're gonna tell you everything And we're gonna spoon feed you and here it is and we're not just saying here It is we're jamming the spoon in your mouth repeatedly and screaming at you while we do it So I didn't like that aspect of it, but you know It should have been more understated. I think it would have played off a lot better And that's one of the biggest things with Patrick Schwarzenegger's character Daniel is he's so overstated. He's so overstated They needed to tone that character way way down. It would have helped the story so much more The relationship between Luke and Daniel actually seems very confused in this film They're shared knowledge and blind areas, but it's very much inconsistent It's kind of like a they're together. They're not together and then they're together again and where they pick back up Doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Like I said, it just feels like that relationship is severely confused who knows what about the other and Like I was saying the shared knowledge versus not shared knowledge is very very Inconsistent with how they did it and then the fact that you know not being together Being together then not being together then being together again it's like there's no Reintroduction of the characters to each other and it's just like It's weird. Like it doesn't work like that. Like it just doesn't work. It just feels odd It just feels kind of rushed and like We don't need to give you this exposition. Let's just you know, just Actually, nothing ever happened. Let's just go to this and there's a bunch of kind of like, oh, okay Just because so I was like, I don't know Daniel needed to be a more subtle character. Yes Schwarzenegger plays the character of Daniel the best way I could probably put it is bluntly There's there's like I said, he's he's very overstated There's no subtext there. It is all in your face and blunt and With that type of character and what that character symbolizes it means I really think it would have been much better to tone them way down and Do more of a slow burn with the character It would have been much more a much better payoff in the end of the film in my opinion for that reason I would have liked better flow to the story. It kind of feels like it aimlessly meanders at times Yeah, it it me it aimlessly meanders quite a bit, especially in this middle section of the film Like I said, the beginning is really good and sets things up really really well And then it backs off a bit and you have some really good moments within there But it doesn't really pick back up much until I don't know maybe a half an hour left in the film or so and it's an hour and 40 minute film Which that's a whole another thing, which is I feel like they should have cut this by about 15 minutes I mean, it's too long Anytime you have a horror film that's an hour and 40 minutes or longer The audience is going to be looking at it and thinking Do we really need this longer runtime because an hour and a half or less Is typically where you want to hit with horror films Now if the story warrants it and you go longer by all means do it This film was not that because like I said meandered a lot you could tell they were kind of They weren't necessarily wasting time But it kind of felt like they were wasting time at times because they kind of rehashed some stuff That didn't need to be rehashed The girl who plays the character of sophie just want to throw this little tidbit out there Her name is hannah marks and she was in the show dirk gently's holistic detective agency with Elijah wood So there's a connection there between those two. They knew each other prior. So I thought it was cool There's a point of perspective switch in this film And visually how they made the switch happen Was really cool now if you've seen the film, I'll tell you when it was it was in the steam tunnels So, you know what I mean the first time that there's a Perspective switch in the steam tunnels the way they got to that point Looked really cool and was really cool. Like I said, there are things I liked about this film and that was it And in general there were a lot of cool visuals in this film too from a directing standpoint from a cinematography standpoint It was well done practical effects really good as well. So There's a lot of visual awesomeness in this film. It's just the story A bunch of issues with that the acting one in particular There's some stuff that's supposed to be comedic But it does not land in my opinion And I think a lot of the reason for that is actually schwarz negger's acting He is supposed to have more of the comedic type stuff And in the situation the way he delivers the lines once again I don't know if he was told to deliver them that way or not It just doesn't work. It doesn't land and it doesn't feel right either. You're just like like when he when he Delivers lines a lot in this and a lot of his acting It feels like it just clashes with the film and in a way I can understand that But they needed to have it clash in a different way I mean having it clash could be an intentional choice and it could work for the overall story in a sense, but The the way in which they executed it. It just doesn't work. It just is off putting to me And not in the sense of like, oh, that's scarier. That's creeper or anything. It's just it's just off And I don't know it's I don't know There are some really cool visuals. Yeah and practical fuck. Sorry. I talked about that once again This does bear repeating again. Miles robbins did an excellent job as luke excellent job as luke props to that guy There are many times where the music is too heavy handed less is more sometimes and this film could have used a bunch of toning down To have more impact. Yes I understand that you know, there's there's a large portion of the film, especially when the music is super heavy Where, you know, I think they're trying to give a very intense mode of the film and drive that home And make it feel intense for you because things are intense for the characters. I get that that's fine But when you just keep doing it and doing it and doing it and doing it and at the level that they do it's just too much like just Step back a little bit. Let's calm down here So there's a confrontation at the end of this film that is executed in a way that just seems odd Really odd and just a weird choice and I don't Like I I get why they did it because it's kind of a call back to something else in the film So I understand it from that aspect, but the way in which they did it Just felt off. It's like what are we doing? Like why? um, it's a particular fight that occurs and you're just like What movie am I watching right now? Did we just Side track into some other film and then we're going to get back to this one or or what? It just didn't work The end did not impact me much because the movie felt like it didn't quite know what it wanted to do Or what it wanted to achieve I really did have this kind of like so what feeling when the film and ended which is really unfortunate because When I really thought about it and took my time There is a good story here. There is definitely an interesting story There's an interesting twist on something that's been done before and that means that there was some merit to the film but They just needed to develop this better the script needed a bunch more passes to it And this is why I say I think the book is probably a lot better. It makes me interested to check out the book That's probably a lot better because the other thing is the type of story that's at play here Probably is better executed in word as opposed to a visual medium It's a lot harder to get this type of material Properly into a visual medium. I'm just saying But you know, I know there are going to be people to disagree with me I happen to know there are a few people I've heard from who really like this movie and that's fine. That's all good I'm just giving you my thought on it The film looks at mental illness from both ends at one point of the film actually very early on Through one character and that's actually very interesting how they do that this this goes into the whole thing I was talking about in the beginning. There's some really cool stuff done some really impactful good stuff done And one character you kind of see both sides of a mental illness struggle Which is really interesting that's not really giving anything away if you've seen the trailer for daniel isn't real That is not spoiling anything because every everything i'm talking about is in the trailer The other thing is daniel isn't real is a terrible title to be honest Especially for what the story is and if you've seen it, I hope you get what i'm talking about It's just too much and once again tone it down More subtle tone it down In the end I feel like the events in the beginning may have been better being revealed at the end One of those whole ordeals where you backtrack at the end and be like here's the backstory instead of giving the backstory up front I think it would have worked a lot better had they done that I believe the writer for this has seen the film drop dead fred Anyone out there seen drop dead fred feels familiar And like I said before, uh, I think they should have shaved about 15 minutes off of this one Definitely should have but I think One of the things for me too is when I watched the movie bliss On shutter it was very go go go go go go go go and it was kind of over the top and it was intense So there are people who really like those types of films That's not for me and this has a lot of that going on So if you like that, you're probably really gonna like this Just like I know a lot of people who like to bliss as well because it's so like go go go go go in your face And a film that screams at you basically the whole time um For in many ways, uh, but this is kind of similar, but I'd be interested to see what everyone else thought Patrick Schwarzenegger's performance Put some comments down there. Did you think he did a good job? Because like I said, I can't tell if it's his acting or if he was told to act that way Regardless how the character is played and how the character delivers lines Does not work for me at all in this film and it took me out of it quite a bit But anyway, that said like I said, there's good and there's bad. I've laid that out So out of five stars with half stars in play I'm gonna give this a two star rating. I can't I can't quite get it to the middle Because it felt very confused. Like I said I did it felt like it didn't know what it was trying to achieve necessarily I it knew what it was trying to tell you a few things like give you parts of a story or be like This is the underlying story, but it didn't really feel like it knew how to do that Or how to do that effectively and it just Was confused. I felt it felt very confused now. Maybe part of that was intentional based on what the topic of the film is If if so fine, but for me it just didn't work, but two stars Anyway, please help me out hit that subscribe if you like any reviews I do or any videos at all hit that subscribe for me Also, make sure you hit the notification bell that way you'll know when I'm putting up videos But more importantly when I'm going to do another live stream Put some comments down there. We'll talk about this and other stuff horror related and then give me a thumbs up Especially if you're already subscribed and you want me to know you're still watching thumbs up But thanks for checking this out and until next time keep it brutal