Come to Daddy

As an insufferably moustachioed millennial battling for his estranged father’s affections, Elijah Wood is characteristically brilliant in Ant Timpson’s unpredictably bizarre and hilarious directorial debut. 

Norval is a thirtysomething misfit hipster DJ and recovering alcoholic who still lives at home with his mother. He’s not seen his dad in decades, but when he receives a handwritten invitation from the man who abandoned him as a child, Norval naïvely jumps at the opportunity. Big mistake!

Revered horror producer Ant Timpson (Field Guide to Evil, MIFF 2018; Turbo Kid and Deathgasm, both MIFF 2015) makes a thrilling leap to directing with this blackest of black comedies. Come to Daddy pits a wonderfully eccentric Elijah Wood’s Norval against his father, played with juicy menace by Stephen McHattie, for an epic father/son reunion. Violent, gory, inventively twisted and endlessly twisty, it’s also at its core something deeper: a film that makes unexpected headway grappling with issues of masculinity and grief. Written with provocative glee by Toby Harvard and stunningly shot by Daniel Katz, Come to Daddy also features Martin Donovan and Michael Smiley. Oozing with 70s exploitation vibes, this is as messed up and gloriously nutty as you would expect from Timpson’s first outing in the director’s chair.

“A crazy, hilarious, gross adventure with plenty of twists and turns and a lot of creative weaponry … It’s smart, uncompromising, inventive and just downright hilarious.” – Film Threat