"Dear David" makes a stale horror movie out of chilling Twitter thread
Sleep paralysis is a very real thing, and apparently so was the then-Twitter thread that’s the basis for director John McPhail’s “Dear David.” It was in 2017 that BuzzFeed comic artist Adam Ellis started documenting strange phenomena in his New York duplex apartment, only for the thread to go viral. “Dear David” refers to the ghost of a dead child who was killed back in 1996 and thereafter haunted cyberbullies. If someone comes across Dear David online, they can only ask him two questions, never three, or else. Was it all real or just a writer’s hoax? This movie version doesn’t find an interesting answer.
A charismatic, persuasive Augustus Prew (“Almost Love”) plays Adam, who already has trouble sleeping and a distant relationship with his crazy mother, but he’s a relatable gay man. He has a supportive boyfriend, Kyle (René Escobar Jr.), and a best work friend, Evelyn (Andrea Bang). In the BuzzFeed workplace, his latest output isn’t being loved by his boss (Justin Long, in his current renaissance of playing jerks in horror movies but playing slightly less of one here). It’s when Adam gives in to the online trolls and tells one of them to “DIAF” (die in a fire). This sparks some weird goings-on in his apartment, especially one night when Adam experiences sleep paralysis. He wakes up, unable to move when he sees the rocking chair by his bed move on its own, until it’s occupied by a little boy missing a chunk of his skull. Things go from spooky, as Adam’s two cats start gathering by the front door at midnight every night, to unsafe, as Adam starts losing time and alienating the people around him before being a danger to himself.
Director McPhail (2018’s lovable “Anna and the Apocalypse”) and writer Mike Van Waes should be able to get more than enough mileage out of this urban legend-type Twitter thread. For a while, they do, as there’s some fun in seeing how Adam copes with the pesky paranormal activity. It’s no wonder this made for an addictive read on social media, but the anticlimactic execution as a feature-length film seems to entirely miss the point. Read the full review at GuyAtTheMovies.com
Grade: C
Lionsgate released “Dear David” (94 min.) in select theaters, on demand and digital on October 13, 2023.
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