One of the saddest things that could ever possibly happen to someone who loves movies is to watch one that you think you would like, only for that to not be the case — when something that should be right up your alley ends up being less than stellar.
It’s not a fun realization to have, but you’ll likely feel it nonetheless while watching director Anthony Scott Burns’ film Come True.
The plot is intriguing, yet deceptively simple at the same time. A teenager named Sarah (Julia Sara Stone) finds herself experiencing terrifying nightmares that involve a sinister figure and other genuinely scary imagery. Feeling trapped by these nightmares, and also struggling to live on her own after running away from home, she signs up for a local sleep study. There, she is observed by a group of secretive scientists, including the mysterious Jeremy (Landon Liboiron) and the overly-confident Anita (Carlee Ryski). As the study progresses, strange occurrences start happening to Sarah as she begins to question the study’s true intentions.
There is genuine potential in a concept such as this. Burns cites his previous experiences with sleep paralysis as inspiration for the film, which becomes clear as the study gets much darker. The nightmare sequences are also very well-executed and eerie. It is impressive that Come True was shot with a skeleton crew of only five people because you will not be able to tell.
Unfortunately, impressive visuals and an interesting concept cannot make a movie succeed on its own. The characters are never fleshed out enough for viewers to even potentially be engaged and some characters and subplots are dropped completely. For example, Sarah is shown at the beginning of the film to be friends with a girl named Zoe (Tedra Rogers) and the dynamic between the two feels very genuine. Unfortunately, Zoe only makes a couple of appearances before a sudden departure from the film altogether. While the ending might explain these inconsistencies, it is still disappointing since that dynamic is significantly more interesting than any relationship Sarah has with Jeremy.
This is arguably the film’s worst aspect. Sarah is shown throughout the movie as being creeped out by Jeremy but as the film continues, Sarah discovers Jeremy’s romantic feelings towards her and ultimately reciprocates them.
It is important to note that Sarah is very clearly depicted as a high schooler in the film. In two separate scenes, she is seen in different states of tiredness in class, only barely being able to concentrate. In 2021, is it too much to ask not to include relationships between high schoolers and grown adults in our media? Given that she originally found him to be a weird stalker, this change in feelings comes off as gross and ultimately unnecessary. The aforementioned ending of the film does provide some much-needed closure to this creepy relationship, but it also ends up being a bewildering cop-out.
The fact that Come True has a premise brimming with potential along with impressive special effects makes the fact that it ultimately doesn’t work so much more depressing. It ultimately suffers from the same drawbacks as Burns’ directorial debut Our House, which was also an interesting idea bogged down by a confusing and cheap execution. Perhaps Come True is better left to sleep.
