The latest example, “Come to Daddy,” is the paragon of Wood’s sensibilities: The directorial debut of longtime genre producer Ant Timpson is the eerie look at a young man visiting his estranged father at a remote countryside home, where he discovers his hard-drinking pop might not be telling the full truth. From there, “Come to Daddy” careens into a bloody, slapstick thrill ride, equal parts “Evil Dead” and early Peter Jackson.
Wood met Timpson years ago on the genre festival circuit, and the pair worked together as co-producers on the wacky Sundance midnight sensation “The Greasy Strangler.” That was when Timpson first started talking about the premise for “Come to Daddy,” which drew on his personal experiences looking after his father’s death, when the filmmaker was tasked with looking after the body. “He had to sit with his dad’s body for a week and ended up meeting all these characters from his dad’s past,” Wood said. Later, Timpson sent Wood the script by Toby Harvard. “You never know where it’s going,” Wood said. “It constantly shifts in regards to its direction. It starts off as this family reunion story, and turns into something really different at the end, but still retains this emotional core. I love that it has the genre aspects along with this emotional truth.”
