Rating: NR | Runtime: 95 minutes
Release Date: February 10th, 2023 (USA)
Studio: Dark Star Pictures
Director(s): Corey Deshon
Writer(s): Corey Deshon

There are no rules out there.

The mystery at the center of Corey Deshon’s Daughter is what captivated me for its first half and frustrated me for the second because there is such a thing as being too ambiguous when it comes to narrative storytelling. It’s the hook at the start—demanding that we ask questions about this family’s motivations as well as the reality that sits outside their home’s quarantined walls.

What is it that Father (Casper Van Dien) believes Brother (Ian Alexander) can do upon adulthood? Does he think the boy is the second-coming of Christ? Is he? What happened to their world since a cryptic conversation between Father and the newly kidnapped Sister (Vivien Ngô) infers something did happen? Where is the line between delusion and truth? Could Father’s cruelty ultimately prove mankind’s salvation?

It’s funny that Deshon mentions both Dogtooth and 10 Cloverfield Lane as comparison points because he’s not wrong as far as the audience entering a strangely surreal world dictated by an untrustworthy patriarch. Where those both eventually shed light on what exists beneath the façade, however, Daughter never does.

That’s where my frustration set in since the script almost seems to toy with our expectations by leading us towards an ever-increasing sense of provocation on behalf of Sister. She’s not only testing her limits within this bastardized religious cult of one, but she’s also pushing Father closer and closer to his own. We therefore anticipate a collision that will force him to either confront the lie he’s created or confirm that he’s been correct the whole time.

Sadly, the film is all build-up. While this fact ensures the end will be unsatisfying in its ambiguity (rather than leaving things to interpretation, it simply stops unfinished), it also means that everything coming before the letdown is quite effective. Not only was I enthralled by the mythologizing and the characters (Elyse Dinh’s Mother may be the most complex of them all once revelations are made), but I was certain it was all leading me down a road towards excitement.

How else could Father continue this charade with Mother and Brother’s help to secure new victims to complete their quartet? What did the future hold that was scary enough to sustain such a stifling atmosphere of oppressive totalitarianism? The danger remains palpable as Sister’s games threaten Father’s hypocrisy further. So, ending in a whimper doesn’t erase that good work. It just made me wonder what I missed.

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(L-R) Elyse Dinh as Mother, Casper Van Dien as Father, Vivien Ngô as Sister, and Ian Alexander as Brother in the thriller film, DAUGHTER, a Dark Star Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Dark Star Pictures.