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Stars: Blu Hunt, Katherine Hughes, Ben Smith-Petersen, Josh Marble, Brennan Mejia, Joey Millin, Aerial Washington | Written by Elric Kane, Webb Wilcoxen | Directed by Elric Kane

The Dead Thing opens with an extended montage that gives us a look at Alex and the dead-end routine that takes up her waking hours. Her job is a dead-end position that has something to do with layouts and printing and her social life is a stream of one-nighters arraigned via a hookup app named Friktion, a name that’s meant to evoke the feeling of skin on skin, but serves as an omen of the conflict it’s about to bring her way.

Throw in some Uv light therapy and avoiding her roommate Kara and that’s her existence, I say existence, because it seems a bit of a stretch to call it living. For all intents and purposes, she could be the dead thing the title speaks of.

The Dead Thing begins with a familiar scenario: Alex, a young woman entangled in the monotonous cycle of modern dating, scrolls through an endless stream of potential matches on dating apps, searching for genuine connection amid superficial interactions. She connects with Kyle through the “Friktion” app—an attractive prospect who initially seems perfect and quickly captivates her.

Their early exchanges buzz with chemistry and excitement, presenting the illusion of contemporary romance without emotional depth. Suddenly, Kyle disappears without explanation, transforming the narrative into something more sinister: he is actually deceased.

Los Angeles serves as a critical canvas for exploring Alex’s emotional landscape. The city embodies emptiness—its architecture of stark office spaces, cluttered living quarters, and dimly lit social venues reflects Alex’s internal void. Digital interactions promise shallow connections but ultimately fail to create meaningful relationships. As Alex becomes consumed with reconnecting to Kyle, the urban environment pulses with an underlying tension,...

Stars: Blu Hunt, Ben Smith-Petersen, John Karna, Katherine Hughes | Written by Elric Kane, Webb Wilcoxen | Directed by Elric Kane

Directed by Elric Kane and co-written by Webb Wilcoxen, The Dead Thing is an erotic thriller with a supernatural twist. By turns haunting, chilling and achingly melancholy, it’s also a compelling drama about digital dating and modern-day malaise.

Set in present-day Los Angeles, the film stars Blu Hunt as Alex, a bored twenty-something working a dead-end office job as a “scanner bitch” and spending her nights with a series of one-night stands she meets through a dating app called Friktion. Meanwhile, there’s increasing tension between her and her best friend Cara (Katherine Hughes), whose flat she has been “temporarily” sharing for more than two years and who is currently recovering from a recently called-off wedding.

One night, Alex meets kind-hearted, sensitive Kyle (Ben Smith-Petersen) via the app and sparks...

There’s horror to be found in LA’s dating scene, at least according to the first solo fiction feature film from director Elric Kane. Working from a script he co-wrote with Webb Wilcoxen, Kane’s The Dead Thing is a moody, atmospheric look at the toxicity of finding someone in the city of angels.

Alex (Blu Hunt of The New Mutants) is a twenty-something single who is stuck in a perpetual dating rut. She’s active on Friktion, a dating app, and the opening of the film finds her in a cycle of generic looking men: first on the app, then at the bar, and finally in bed. For Alex, this is repetitive, it’s unexciting, and it’s transactional.

It’s also notable that the only sound is dialogue from men and/or the score by Michael Krassner and Robin Vining. Alex herself doesn’t speak until nearly nine minutes into the film,...