A troubled college freshman, Luke, suffers a violent family trauma and resurrects his childhood imaginary friend Daniel to help him cope.

Luke (Miles Robbins) witnesses a murder as a child and subsequently gains an imaginary friend Daniel (Nathan Chandler Reid) to cope. When Daniel almost causes Luke to kill his mother Claire (Mary Stuart Masterson), she tells him to lock Daniel away.

Later, as Luke goes through the stressed of college and having a mother spiraling into mental illness, he begins to see hallucinations of warped, demonic people.  His therapist Dr. Braun (Chukwudi Iwuji) suggests that he try to reconnect to the imagination that created Daniel in his childhood. So Luke goes to his home where Daniel was locked away, and opens the door. Daniel (Patrick Schwarzenegger) appears to Luke as an adult.

At first Daniel seems to help Luke, guiding him to meet women and pursue creative photography, but all is not as it seems.

This is a movie about figuring out the rules. How does this imaginary friend thing work? He seems to know things Luke doesn’t, and sometimes there’s a bit of menace to him when no one is looking. Is he really in Luke’s imagination or is her some sort of outsider? Does he have Luke’s interests at heart? Is just he some sort of Manic Pixie Dream Himbo?

Daniel seems to be jealous of Luke’s attention, even though he leads Luke to parties and women and an increasingly wild lifestyle. There are conflicts. Perhaps Daniel is seeking a sort of circuitous vengeance for being locked away for 15 years?

Eventually Luke begins to wonder if he isn’t delusional like his mother.

There’s a little bit of Fight Club to Daniel Isn’t Real, and some of the magical realism of John Dies at the End. Some of the hallucinations have a definite Jacob’s Ladder vibe.

This movie has another weird dichotomy: everything is disappointingly heterosexual, and one of my notes while watching was “needs more gay.” But while Luke is hooking up with ladies, the movie avoids the (straight) male gaze and most of the flesh on display is Luke’s and Daniel’s. Their interactions are longing and jealous, and once or twice it looks like Daniel is going to kiss Luke — although we eventually learn that kissing is not exactly what Daniel has on his mind.

The meaning of the name Daniel is God is my Judge,  and Luke is the name of the Biblical doubter. Is this meaningful? I’m honestly not sure, but I always notice when movies use Biblical names. Luke’s mother’s name is Claire, but she doesn’t see too clearly, so if the naming convention is intentional, it doesn’t go too far.

Is this horror? Parts are. It is very imaginative, and I have often felt that imagination without whimsy tends toward horror. Though it doesn’t take itself too seriously, either. It is well-acted and the audience definitely cares about Luke and the people in his life, so there is a real sense of tension when things begin to inevitably go bad.