One Star Classics : Come True

Come True

Sep 18, 2023 / Mind Benders

Here’s an eerie little mind-bender, one that keeps you guessing to the literal end. Literally the literal end: I was ready to give Come True a disappointed shake of the head after arriving at what looked to be the ending. Then, ten seconds before the credits rolled, everything got pulled back together. Thankfully. Don’t get me wrong, the journey is more important than the destination, but if you have a story that flirts with the obtuse, you need some sort of payoff. Luckily, Come True delivers just that in a creepy package.

The setup is simple, though the story grows increasingly more complex: Sarah, an eighteen-year-old high-school student, has vivid nightmares that push her into insomnia. She decides to submit to a sleep study, but before long, finds that there is more to the research than what is being let on. Are the shadow creatures in her dreams real? And is there another world we can only see through our dreams? That can be accessed through dreams?

I do enjoy these kinds of otherworldly sci-fi films, and Come True does what it does better than many. Granted, the baseline might not be that high, but the movie objectively has many things going for it. Julia Sarah Stone as the protagonist, for example. She’s a likable character with a proper interiority (and a mysterious one, too—exactly what is the deal with her and her parents?). Her anger and frustration when she learns the researchers very much want to grab onto her dreams are both understandable and relatable. And her blossoming relationship with the head researcher, Jeremy (Landon Liboiron), is... Well, interesting. And questionable. (You’re really smart for your age might be a red flag.)

As these movies go, there end up being some lapses in logic that are just a pinch too hard to ignore. There’s not much to say about it here other than a second viewing might tie some of it together, but honestly, I’m left with the feeling that it would make it come further apart.

That aside, Come True is a creepy watch. Often eerie and sometimes even funny. Presumably, this IFC-distributed movie didn’t film under a huge budget, but even the effects look pretty decent. Sarah’s nightmares take place in an otherworld that is well formed. It’s a stylish movie where the audio and visuals mesh up with the story. A dreamlike story should be told through a dreamlike film, and Come True hits all those notes.

Sure, some more time to polish the script would have helped. You know, some thread to sew up those holes. In the end, it doesn’t matter that much, though—as far as bringing with it a feeling of quiet dread, Come True is ultimately a successful movie, thankfully all the way til the end.

By Remi, Sep 18, 2023

Letterboxd summary: Looking for an escape from her recurring nightmares, 18-year-old Sarah submits to a university sleep study, but soon realizes she's become the conduit to a frightening new discovery.