48 LISTENER FEBRUARY 29 2020
by RUSSELL BAILLIEI
t’s possibly not surprising that Ant
Timpson’s feature-directing debut,
Come to Daddy, is quite so nuts. Its
tale of a father and son reunion is
scary, funny, bloody, grim, unhinged
but entertaining with it. That might be
expected of the guy who has for many
years programmed the “Incredibly
Strange” part of the New Zealand Inter-
national Film Festival and run the annual
riot of spontaneous cinematic weirdness
that is the 48 Hour film challenge.
Plus, he’s produced or executive
produced a rash of horror comedies and
anthologies here and overseas. Enough to
keep the Hollywood cinema in Auckland’s
Avondale – which he co-owns with his
brother, Matt – in business when it’s not
being a music venue or housing
much of Timpson’s vast collection
of 35mm celluloid.
But what is surprising about
Timpson’s Come to Daddy is its
inspiration – that a movie so
outlandish could spring from
something sad and personal.
Timpson’s father, Tony Timp-
son, founder of the Cavalier
Bremworth carpet empire,
died in 2018.
A week spent with his
father’s body in his houseunnerved Timpson. He later thought it
would be the starting point of a script
and told British screenwriter Toby Harvey,
whom he knew from previous produc-
tions. Come to Daddy was born, and with it
Timpson’s first chance to direct a feature.
He’d previously written and directed a
short, Crab Boy, in the mid-90s. That, too,
sprang from a death in
the family, the passing
of his mother. “Whenmy mum died, I kind of went into a big
black hole ... then I just got busy with
everything else and other facets of the
industry, and as life does to you, decades
flew by pretty quickly. It was a huge reali-
sation after seeing my dad cark it in front
of me that mortality was staring me in the
mirror. Basically, life’s very short. That was
the propulsion to get things under way. It
was two deaths. I’ve run out of parents to
use as inspiration to get a film made.”H
is folks, he says, shared
his sense of humour
and were supportive of
his taste for offbeat cinema,
even when Customs raided
the family home over
some business to do with
Timpson, who was just a
youngster, sending horror
films in the mail. ”I think
they kind of knew the
path I’d taken into the
types of films that I might
end up being associated
with. They were absolutely
supportive of my love affair
with that. I watched a lot of
strange films with my parentsMeet
the dead
parent
G
ET
TY
IM
AG
ES
Elijah Wood, above, and below, with Ant
Timpson: kept “pulling” Timpson back to keep
Come to Daddy on the rails.Strange-film buff Ant
Timpson has done it
again – made a second
movie inspired by the
passing of a loved one.
BOOKS&CULTURE