How does one form a meaningful relationship in the modern world? And once you do, how do you keep that relationship from dying, or turning into something else entirely? The Dead Thing is a supernatural story set in the modern online dating scene. It is an examination of how we make (or fail to make) connections in a technology-fueled world, and what can happen when those connections become too intense. This film comes from Elric Kane and is his first feature as a solo director.
Co-written with Webb Wilcoxen, The Dead Thing opens on Alex (Blu Hunt), a lonely woman trapped in the internet dating scene of LA. She splits her time between a colorless job as a document scanner and swiping through her dating app. She regularly goes out with men, hoping that one of them will be the right match. But none of the men that she meets are terribly interesting. Or sexy. Or special. They’re just another empty night.
Until one night when she meets Kyle (Ben Smith-Petersen), a mysterious stranger with whom she has an instant connection. He is funny, sweet, surprisingly sensitive, and everything between them just clicks. For the first time, we see Alex really come to life. This isn’t just sex with no emotional connection. They spend a passionate night together, and in the morning, though they go their separate ways, there is a lingering to their behavior. Like they don’t want the moment to end.
Alex can’t stop thinking about Kyle. She wants to see him again, but he is nowhere to be found. She sends him a couple of flirty texts, and nothing. She stops by the cafe where he works, nothing. Alex is frustrated. She felt something special between them, and yet Kyle seems to have ghosted her.
As much as Alex fears that their relationship is over before it has even begun, the pair is fated to meet again. They need each other. Being together fills an empty space for each of them. As that need intensifies, we see the effect that it has on their relationship. Kyle becomes possessive and smothering. Alex withdraws from everything in her life that is separate from him. Together, they become something damaged. The film explores the nature of this dynamic and the way it changes and eats at both of them.
So much of what makes this film great is the way it communicates with the audience and brings us into the world of the story. Yes, there are the plot elements that we see onscreen, but Kane brilliantly brings us into the minds and emotions of the characters. Through intentional staging, lighting and a great score from Michael Krassner, we are able to transcend the barrier between our world and the film’s and really exist in the moment with these people. We feel Alex’s emptiness as she goes through her life in a lonely haze. We see her excitement when she first meets Kyle and finally is able to connect with another human in a way that feels important. The moments that they are together feel positively blissful, and the turn the film takes is frightening in a very real and grounded way. Though there is a supernatural angle to this story, that is not where the real horror lies. The real horror is in the way we can destroy one another from the inside out.
Blu Hunt turns in an excellent performance. The range she brings to Alex’s emotions sells the story and gives the film the emotional backbone that it needs. We are with her when the world feels gray and we are there when it is filled with colors. Ben Smith-Petersen is a great counterpoint as Kyle. There are moments when these characters are emotionally in sync, and moments when they are at odds. And when we get to the darker third act, the turn in Kyle is tense and frightening.
There are few pacing issues through the film and a couple of plot threads that don’t fully gel into the bigger picture, but none of that takes away from the moody examination of two people just trying to feel alive and wanted in a space that really only seems interested in first impressions and small talk. All in all, everything comes together well and creates something both thought-provoking and filled with dread.
Movie Score: 3.5/5
Emily von Seele hails from Seattle, where it rains a lot, which gives her plenty of excuses to stay inside and watch movies. She has written for Bloody Disgusting, Daily Dead, the Women in Horror Annual and Grim Magazine, and is co-host of the Dead Ringers podcast. You can usually catch Emily on Twitter (@horrorellablog), where she has been known to gab excessively about movies and tweet adorable pics of her two cats - seriously, they are the cutest ever.
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