Touted as a “stylishly crafted psychological horror thriller”, the exciting buzz around Daniel Isn’t Real (2019) had our hearts racing. Luckily, we had a subject who was less familiar with the horror genre and hopefully would record an elevated physiological response. Find out if she experienced real fear while watching this artistic horror film released exclusively on Shudder.
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SYNOPSIS:
A troubled college freshman, Luke, suffers a violent family trauma. He then resurrects his charismatic childhood imaginary friend Daniel to help him cope, not realizing how dangerous Daniel is.
Test Subject: Leah
Age: 35
Gender: Female
Fears: Crowds
Resting HR: 62-65bpm
Walking HR: 80-85bpm
ANALYSIS:
As the film opened, our heart monitor registered an initial blip of 72bpm during a twenty minute span of character building. This slow start gave way to an uncomfortable moment able to escalate our subject’s heart rate to 79bpm. Following some ominous plot development, the two main actors established an amusing chemistry which lightened the mood over the next twenty five minutes. We recorded our first spike above 80bpm at 52:00 when an intense battle led to increasingly brutal moments. More mysteries began to unravel as the film increased momentum. One ferocious scene at 1:15 had our subject clenching her fists and wincing which caused her peak heart rate of 86bpm.
CONCLUSION:
Daniel Isn’t Real (2019) begins as a slow psychological horror then melds grotesquely into a trippy action/thriller. Creepy special effects along with believable acting kept our subject intrigued but not terrified. The occasional moments of fear brought respectable spikes but unfortunately there were too many lulls during the first act to carry a consistently high heart rate throughout the entire film. Daniel Isn’t Real delivered a dark and fascinating story, one in which our subject cared rather than feeling truly scared.
Daniel Isn’t Real: Burns an average of 168 Calories
How many Fear Calories did you burn watching Daniel Isn’t Real? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook