Auteur makes ‘Come True’ a smart, stylish nightmare
“Come True” should be an exhilarating discovery for anyone it doesn’t put to sleep. But even if you do find yourself nodding off a little during this deliberately paced, lowhumming scifi horror movie, that means it’s working, too.
The story is about a university sleep study that goes horribly wrong, but also pretty much as intended. Rest assured that it all comes to a satisfying conclusion, despite how murky the drama, logic and visual clues that lead up to it sometimes appear.
The second feature from independent filmmaker Anthony Scott Burns, “Come True” was shot with a skeletal crew of five. The result feels like a lot of brainy genre movies, but it also boasts a distinct style and vibe. Dreamlike by definition, the movie gets away with disjointed plot leaps and hypnotically elongated scenes. It lulls yet keeps a viewer constantly on edge, a neat trick for any director to pull off.
The film also includes a believable lead performance that will keep your eyes open. Julia Sarah Stone, perhaps best known for playing Lyric in the third season of AMC’s “The Killing,” is Sarah, a high school runaway whose nights are haunted by visions of some glowingeyed hu
manoid in underlit, purgatorial environments. She’s a bundle of insecurities yet strongwilled and resolved not to be a victim. Stone is never less than engaged, even when the character is sleepwalking.
Sarah signs up for the experiment for the cash, a place to rest and the hope of someday getting a good night’s sleep. It’s unclear whether she ever gets paid, but the other two wishes are dashed as the effort to observe subjects’ dreams succeeds. The researchers are a wonkish bunch whose unemotional reassurances are themselves kind of alarming — except for Jeremy (Landon Liboiron). His extra interest in Sarah is creepy, and she calls him out early on, but he’s also puppydog
devoted to helping her and, as the study veers out of control, saving her if he can.
Not all themes Burns sets up pay off, but again, nightmare logic covers loads of narrative lapses. That said, a second viewing to catch what isn’t obvious the first time through would no doubt be rewarding.
Burns is also his own cinematographer; when not in Expressionist shadowland, he goes for institutional drab with touches of neon glow and video monitor static. In his musicmaking persona, Pilotpriest, Burns composed the film’s droning churn of a score with the Toronto duo Electric Youth. He also had a hand in the film’s disorienting special effects.
It’s all quite distinctive and effectively formed in a chilled, modest DIY way. Yet Burns is not shy about overtly referencing his influences, which include silent German films, Stanley Kubrick, Freddy Krueger naturally, “Night of the Living Dead” indie god George Romero and, most often, Canada’s science/horror maestro David Cronenberg (the professor overseeing the experiment, played by Christopher Heatherington, even looks like Cronenberg in ridiculously boxy glasses). By the time we reach the end of the movie, it evokes Guillermo del Toro’s first feature, “Cronos.” That’s a recommendation as well as an observation, and proof that “Come True” is well worth staying awake for.