Horror media borrows more from its inspiration than most genres. Influential directors do more than spur other creators into action. They create subgenres. Their names become synecdoche for networks of narrative and aesthetic tropes. That allows easy comparisons between works separated by medium, purpose, and budget. Remedy Entertainment’sControland Anthony Scott Burns’Come Trueshare elements thanks to the tradition of dreamlike horror media that came before.
Independent horror films have the widest quality gulf of any modern art medium. Hacks crank out a thousand abysmal knock-offs of whatever was popular a decade ago, but visionaries occasionally drop something brilliant with a four or five-figure price tag.Bigger budgets can drag horror filmsdown. The IFC Midnight label doesn’t guarantee success or quality, but it is a recognizable brand name with some intriguing features.
Rotten Tomatoes Score
86% Positive
Anyone who has eversuffered sleep paralysis knowsit’s one of the worst conditions a person can have. Anyone who has heard a description of sleep paralysis is justifiably terrified of it happening to them.Come Trueexploits the sleep paralysis demon concept for a nightmarish horror experience. The film follows Sarah, a young lady dealing with unspecified trouble at home. She refuses to sleep in her bed, resting instead on public playgrounds or friends' bedroom floors. That leads her to fall asleep in class and consume caffeine by the gallon. Sarah suffers frequent, incomprehensible nightmares depicting black environments, impossiblearchitecture, and faceless figures. Desperate for money, she volunteers for a mysterious experiment to monitor her sleep. The doctors refuse to share the goal.
The experiment quickly starts to go awry. Sarah’s only friend in the group disappears, and the scientists won’t tell her what happened. Another participant begins stalking Sarah in her daily life. After a fewnights of decent sleep, her nightmares grow more terrifying, causing physical side effects. Sarah becomes enraged and threatens to quit the study. The scientists show her printed pictures of the shadowy figure that haunts her nightmares. Sarah learns that the being keeps her fellow participants awake. Theshared sleep demon beginsappearing in reality. Sarah must discover the truth behind her nightmares and the experiment before something terrible rises from her mind to plague the rest of the world.
Come Trueis available to stream onHulu.
Similarities betweenControlandCome True
Come Trueis a slow-moving, haunting, moody horror film that spends most of its screen time watching people sleep.Controlis a third-person shooter in which the player can throw chunks of stone at flying enemies. They seem different, but the similarities come in the imagery.Controlis set in the Oldest House, perhaps the best-realized video game environment ever designed. The eternally shifting headquarters juts out and folds in with impossible structures haunting every corner. The building seems to be alive and aware. This leads to striking visuals that boggle the imagination. The most memorable scenes inCome Trueare dream sequences that feel cut from the same cloth. Sarah’s dreams feel like cutscenes fromControlwith the narration missing. That’s the most notable commonality, but they share other details, including:
These narrative elements happen to coincide, but the films don’t share a subgenre.Controlbelongs inthe New Weird universe.Come Trueis a more straightforward horror story. Its most unique visual feature, apart from the dream sequences, is the old-fashioned screens that depict nightmares through static. Narratively, both works feature a few twists and turns, butControldoes nothing to matchCome True’s controversial ending. The story of Sarah could be an event the Federal Bureau of Control could investigate.
ControlandCome Trueexplore the haunting potential of the mind and the grim incentives of those who seem to want to help. Their narratives take very different paths, but their imagery feels shockingly similar. The dream sequences could be portals to the Oldest House. The monsters in Sarah’s mind could be corrupted by the Hiss. The secret behind both works is their inspiration. David Lynch, David Cronenberg,and John Carpenter createdthe threads that connect this game and film. Fans ofControlwill loveCome Truebecause it will evoke much of the same unease and alienation. Put down the service weapon and lay down for a long, refreshing nightmare.
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