The modern dating scene really is a nightmare in this new indie horror.
How to watch The Dead Thing in New Zealand
The Dead Thing is streaming in New Zealand exclusively on Shudder from February 14, 2025. Boy, we are getting a lot of horror this V-Day!
The Dead Thing
What is The Dead Thing about?
Directed by American-New Zealand filmmaker and critic Elric Kane (get an earful of him rattling on about various deep cuts on the Pure Cinema Podcast, the official podcast of Los Angeles’ legendary New Beverly Cinema) and co-written by Webb Wilcoxen, The Dead Thing sees Alex, a young woman going through the grinding hell that is the modern app-driven dating scene. She finally has a spark with barista Kyle—but he vanishes out of her life as quickly as he entered it. This leads her to try and track him down, to find out if their connection was the real deal or just a fleeting fancy. Billed as an erotic horror and shot in a stunning neon-and-chiaroscuro* palette, this moody indie promises to bring new meaning to the term “ghosted.”
*File that one away—it’ll make you seem clever.
The cast of The Dead Thing
Blu Hunt (The New Mutants) is Alex; stuntman Ben Smith-Petersen (everything from Mad Max: Fury Road to Peter Rabbit) is Kyle; with Katherine Hughes, John Karna, and Joey Millinin support.
The Dead Thing trailer
Why we’re excited about The Dead Thing
Well, never let it be said that the critical fraternity hasn’t produced a few good directors—Francois Truffaut and Peter Bogdanovitch spring immediately to mind. On the other end of the spectrum, there’s The Critical Drinker, who recently transitioned from embarrassing himself on YouTube to embarrassing himself by adapting his own “literary” output. By all accounts Kane falls more towards the Truffaut/Bogdanovich end of the scale, with this low budget chiller drawing plaudits for its striking aesthetic choices and astute hanndle on the emotional realities of romance in our current grim slice of history.
