This piece was initially published on Much Ado About Cinema in February 2020.
Horror films and mental illness have a fraught relationship. Oftentimes mental illness is used as a plot device to create monstrosity and is exploited as an object of fear. Being mentally ill can only lead to violence, or at least it seems that way throughout the history of the genre. However, director Adam Egypt Mortimer created a film that tackles mental illness with more complexity. In his new film, Daniel Isn’t Real, mental illness is a strange demon that seems to latch onto your very soul and manipulate you.
Daniel Isn’t Real follows college student Luke (Miles Robbins) who is dealing with a lot. His mother’s (Mary Stuart Masterson) mental illness is getting worse and he is struggling with making friends in college. He is lost and confused. So he turns to his old imaginary friend Daniel (Patrick Schwarzenegger) for comfort. Daniel, though, is an agent of chaos, spurring Luke into manic and destructive behavior that seems to replace his own mild-mannered disposition. Luke must figure out how to fight back against Daniel and regain a grasp of who he is.