The Young Cast and Crew of this "Imaginary Friend" Nightmare Show Above Average Creativity and Zest.

The Horror and Thriller Genre has a Rich History of Showcasing and Exploiting Personality Disorders.

It's a Story that Lends Itself to Disturbing and Terrifying Imagery and Horrific Situations.

The Film Adopts a "Psychedelic" Tone from the Stunning Artistic Images During the Openings Credits.

From There the Film Progresses with a Nightmarish Tale of a Schizophrenic College Freshman (Miles Robbins) and His Uneasy (to say the least) Relationship with an "Imaginary Friend".

"Daniel Isn't Real" says the Title, but Audiences are Quick to Challenge that Statement as the Film Unfolds.

"Daniel" ({Patrick Schwarzenegger) is the "Friend", Helper, Tormentor, and Nemesis.

He Represents the "Inner" Intelligence that is Gregarious and Creativity that Daniel Possesses but is too Shy and Insecure to Let Breathe and Associate with the World.

It Proves Rewarding for Luke and the Medication and Visits to a Psychiatrist are Now what Constitutes Life for the Withdrawn Youth who has a New Hobby Photography and an Actual Girlfriend to Relate to.

But Things Don't Stay "Normal" for Long. Daniel is a Demon that Thrives on Terror, Violence, and Dominating the Weak Luke.

There are Images that Disturb and Horrify and the Tone is Relentlessly Unsettling with Many Stand-Out Scenes.

The Ending is Up for Debate about the Particulars but Regardless, this is Fresh Look at and Old Type.

A typical low budget horror film. This one takes a psychological approach which means there are some nicely surreal dream sequences thrown in along the way but most of the time I found this tedious and would rather watch something like AMERICAN PSYCHO or FIGHT CLUB instead as they handle the psychological aspects of a mental breakdown story in a much more impressive and intelligent way. This one's a typical digital film with naturalistic (read: boring) performances and a small scale feel. Patrick Schwarzenegger has fun in the devilish title role but the rest is quite tedious.

So... First impression: kind of a slightly better version of Joker, only instead of being made by a hack it's made by guys who have inhaled a lot of Lynch (especially Twin Peaks and Inland Empire) and to an extent Fight Club. This guy Egyptian isn't without his talent as a director, and casting the sons of Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, and Arnold Schwarzenegger as Luke/Daniel is for their actual talents as actors - or at least what they can give to these somewhat two dimensional characters - and they have a plethora of charisma and pain and madness to burn (Id like to see Robbins play a villain again at some point).

But he also is heavy-handed with the allegory of an actual Lovecraftian Demon (albeit done up with cool vfx that appears practical) being what is more like a "traveler" than a legit mental illness... Or, no, let me rephrase that: I get the idea of this, that the "traveler" is what consumes so many who are afflicted with schizophrenia (or what movies and/or hip novels tell us schizophrenia is about),but once it completely gives in to it being edgy grim-dark nightmare horror stuff, it loses what for me was more fascinating when it was about the characters and how people around a legitimate threat act. So... It's okay, I guess(?) It's the kind of effort I want to applaud more, but by the last act - and a literal bloody sword fight between the afflicted and dementor - I was just hoping for it to end and knew it could only go one way (and lo I was right). If anything, the braver approach for a story of someone like this would have been to strip away the OMG LOOK AT THIS CRAZY S*** OMG stylistic thing and make it just... Real, and not like a Schizo Vision of HELL!

Still like Sasha Lane though, and it's a pleasure seeing Mary Stuart Masterson in a movie again (as Luke's Mom),and she's the best performance in the film.