Parents' Guide to

Come True

By Jeffrey Anderson, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 15+

Unsettling sci-fi/horror about nightmares has blood, sex.

Movie NR 2021 105 minutes
Come True Poster Image

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What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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What's the Story?

In COME TRUE, teen Sarah (Julia Sarah Stone) has run away from home and is sleeping at a local playground. That, combined with creepy nightmares, begins to take a toll: She can barely stay awake in school. She finds a possible solution when she spots an ad for a university sleep study, offering a place to spend the night and hopefully a cure for her nightmares. She meets one of the students in charge of the study, Riff (Landon Liboiron), and they're quickly drawn to each other. Even though it could jeopardize the study, Riff tells her that the students are actually watching the volunteers' dreams on video monitors. The purpose is to study a strange, glowing-eyed creature that seems to emerge in separate dreams at about the same time. But the deeper Sarah goes into this journey, the weirder things get.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: Not yet rated
Kids say: Not yet rated

This sci-fi/horror tale pays homage to horror masters of the 1980s and earlier, while also boasting enough confidence and command to advance into something fresh, startling, and surprising. There are several references to the late George A. Romero in Come True, including a clip of Night of the Living Dead, a character wearing Romero's trademark big black glasses, and a "Romero" T-shirt. The humming, sinister electronic music recalls John Carpenter, and the clinical, gray-green visual tone (and strange costumes) brings to mind David Cronenberg. Yet director/co-writer Anthony Scott Burns -- who also provided the cinematography and co-composed the music -- isn't just copying his predecessors: He has clearly learned from them.

The screenplay (based on a story by Daniel Weissenberger) has plenty of brain-bending twists that keep burrowing deeper, rather than providing a single shock. The flickering, twitching, black-and-white nightmare images are real beauties, meant to provide a slow, eerie quality rather than spine tingles. And a long, striking sequence with a monitor hooked up to a sleepwalker becomes ever more breathless as it progresses into the darkness. But the real key to Come True is Stone (of The Killing) as Sarah: Her wispy, punk-rock hair and wide-set, haunted eyes make her feel vulnerable -- and deeply sympathetic. This is an odd film that's often a bit queasy, but it's ultimately quite powerful.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about Come True's violence. How much is shown, and how intense is it? How did it affect you? Could the story have been told without it?

  • How is sex depicted? What values are imparted?

  • Is the movie scary? What's the appeal of horror movies? Why do people sometimes like to be scared?

  • What do you think the movie's ending means? How does it reflect back on the rest of the story?

Movie Details

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