Despite its title, The Dead Thing is not, as one might easily imagine, a zombie thriller. The horror here takes place, rather, in the rubber realities of its characters lives, where nothing anybody sees is anything they can trust. With a supernatural frisson, the movie seems a metaphor for the selves we put online in that most untrustworthy of spaces, dating apps, and the consequences that follow.
Alex (Blu Hunt), who shares a Los Angeles apartment with her longtime friend Cara (Katherine Hughes), isn’t having much luck meeting guys the old-fashioned way — parties, the gym, friends of friends, etc. It doesn’t help that Alex puts in long hours at some drone-like office job. So she turns to the dating app Friktion, which for her is a wellspring of desultory dates ending in equally desultory sex, all shot in shades of blue, matching her inner angst. Then the app pairs her with the seemingly perfect Kyle (Ben Smith-Peterson). They spark a great connection, and the first date and its continuation in bed all go great — at least so Alex thinks until Kyle ghosts her.
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