Anomaly—The Rochester Genre Film Festival kicks off at The Cinema with a screening of Daniel Isn't Real (Adam Egypt Mortimer, U.S. 2019, 96 min.), preceded by The Video Store Commercial (Cody Kennedy, Tim Rutherford, Canada 2019, 4 min.): "A desperate video store owner hires a crew to shoot a commercial in his shop. But when they accidentally destroy a cursed VHS, suddenly all their lives are in danger, and—worse yet—the commercial may never get finished."

Living on his own for the first time, Manhattan college freshman Luke (Miles Robbins) is struggling to deal with his studies and artistic aspirations while caring for his mentally ill mother (Mary Stuart Masterson). As it all threatens to become too much for him, the reemergence of Luke's childhood imaginary friend Daniel (Patrick Schwarzenegger) appears to be the answer to all his troubles.

Daniel is everything Luke isn't: confident, effortlessly charming and charismatic. But as Daniel begins to assert himself into Luke's life in increasingly unsettling and dangerous ways, the stage is suddenly set for an all-out battle for Luke's very soul. Adam Egypt Mortimor (Some Kind Of Hate) delivers a tense and electrifying dive into the frightening nature of trauma and mental illness, adding just a pinch of unnerving body horror to this stylish psychological thriller.

[source: Anomaly—The Rochester Genre Film Festival website, 2019-Nov-4]