Deadbeat DADDY

DADDY (Blu-ray)

2024 / 98 min

From Anchor Bay Entertainment

Review by Stinky the Destroyer😾

Rather than restoring genre classics, the revived Anchor Bay label appears more focused on newer low-budget films with cult potential. So far, what they’ve released has run the gamut from creatively psychotic (Abrupto) to middling (Cursed in Baja).

Daddy, however, is the first of Anchor Bay’s new roster that, to be perfectly blunt, really sucks. Interminable and irritating to the point of being almost unwatchable, the film wastes its intriguing premise on obnoxious characters, pointless ambiguity and plot threads which hint at something ominous or meaningful, but end up going nowhere.

The story takes place in a dystopian future where being a parent is a privilege that must be earned from the government by successfully completing a program. For men, each is required to stay at a remote house and property with three other candidates, presumably for a series of tests to determine whether they’re suitable fathers. After a brief set-up, the entire film takes place at this compound.

"I thought everybody knew 'Smoke on the Water'."

The main characters (including Neal Kelley & Jono Sherman, who wrote & directed the film) arrive to await further instructions. However, nobody else ever shows up to offer any kind of guidance. The remainder of the narrative has these characters assuming their isolation is the actual test and that they’re being watched by hidden cameras. Among the items in this fully-stocked home is an infant doll, which they sort-of adopt, again figuring how they treat it is another test. 

These guys grow increasingly distrustful and paranoid of everything, including each other, as well as a woman who arrives at the compound claiming her car has broken down. Again, this is an interesting concept, but ruined by terribly conceived characters who take turns being the most unlikable person in the room. And for a supposed black comedy, none of this is particularly funny, nor are their meandering (often grating) conversations all that engaging. If there’s a message or commentary in here somewhere, I sure as hell never found it. Episodic to the extreme, the entire film plays like a series of isolated conflicts strung together by a couple of writers in love with their own dialogue.

And don’t expect any clarity as a payoff for enduring 90 minutes with guys you’d most-likely avoid at a social gathering. Daddy concludes (rather abruptly) without making a discernible point or answering any questions it raises. I don’t necessarily need to be spoonfed information to enjoy a film, but geez guys, throw us a freaking bone on occasion.

EXTRA KIBBLES

C.U.P.S. WEB SERIES - Two episodes from the series, which is by the same guys who wrote & directed Daddy.

EXTENDED/ALTERNATIVE DANCE SCENE

IMPROVISATION REEL - Apparently, much of the dialogue was improvised beforehand, some of which made it into the finished film. This features shows comparisons.

AUDIO COMMENTARY - By writer-directors Neal Kelley & Jono Sherman.