Dating in the modern world is hard. Whereas once upon a time people met organically in everyday surroundings and situations, today we sit at home on our phones, swiping through potential suitors on a variety of apps. Whilst this method can occasionally lead to a long term relationship or meaningful connection, the vast majority of encounters are fleeting and are primarily used for easy hook-ups. This is exactly the way in which The Dead Thing’s lead character, Alex (Blu Hunt), interacts with dating. Each night she meets a new man for meaningless sex, perfectly content keeping herself detached from those that she dates. Then one night she meets Kyle (Ben Smith-Petersen). The pair instantly spark; their brief time together is electric, and has Alex waiting for a second meeting. Tragically, she gets ghosted. Determined to reconnect with Kyle, Alex begins a dangerous journey that leads to a dark obsession.
Set in Los Angeles, The Dead Thing plays out amongst bars, rental apartments, office spaces, and the backseat of Ubers. These settings are all devoid of nature and build a claustrophobic box of monotony around Alex. The use of these surroundings perfectly reflects the lifecycle of single city workers, highlighting how zombified life with a full time job can make people.This is further exemplified through Alex’s use of dating apps. Everything about her world is making her numb and so the introduction of Kyle is a welcome jolt out of her repetitive routine.
With their first date, director Elric Kane perfectly captures those feelings of spending time with someone with whom you share an immediate connection. Both Hunt and Smith-Petersen do brilliant work at selling the instant twin flame energy. During this sequence, some Linklater vibe seeps in and leaves the viewer wondering if they are accidentally watching a rom-com. However, this is merely Kane sucking the audience in, seducing them in a similar fashion to Alex falling under Kyle’s spell. What comes next is far from romantic and affirms The Dead Thing’s cold beating heart.
In contrast to the Alex that the audience has come to know up until this point, the one seen post-Kyle is a different woman. Initially she is elated, riding cloud nine and full of giggly excitement, but this quickly tumbles into a pit of depression after Kyle stops answering her calls and messages. It’s a frustrating scenario that anyone that has ever dated can relate to. Even in the time before dating apps, ghosting was a thing, though thanks to the distance created by technology, it happens far more often today. Alex herself has been something of a ghost to her former matches, but Kyle’s treatment feels especially cruel given just how intense their chemistry was. Alex’s hunt to confront him takes her into dangerous crazy-ex girlfriend territory, giving the viewer pause for thought about exactly what her intentions are when she finds him.
Once Alex is back in Kyle’s orbit, the danger is immediately apparent. There is clearly something not quite right about Kyle, and Alex’s refusal to accept the red flags she is presented with brings in the first real threads of horror to the piece. Despite Kyle’s very clear flaw, Alex is so smitten that she perseveres with him and their relationship is all consuming. As Alex and Kyle get more and more intertwined, the score increases in intensity. From the start it has a pulsating nature to it, acting like a heartbeat, but the closer Kyle and Alex become, the more the score serves to drown out everything, mirroring their consumption of one another.
The union of Alex and Kyle is the perfect metaphor for toxic relationships and the damage that they cause. Typically, watching two people fall head over heels is portrayed as a beautiful process, but here, Kane highlights exactly how bad for us certain people can be. The further the relationship draws on, the more possessive Kyle becomes, paving the way for an intense final act. Genre films about relationships will forever be compelling. They say that the line between love and hate is thin, and this is expertly exemplified in Kane’s tragic and traumatic tale. A film for fans of Nina Forever, Bad Match, The Dead Thing is an elegant exploration of modern dating that isn’t afraid to highlight just how toxic these encounters can become.
The Dead Thing
Summary
Dating can be murder in Elric Kane’s expert depiction of one very, very bad romance.
The Dead Thing was reviewed at Pigeon Shrine FrightFest 2024.
