The Dead Thing

While not without its faults, The Dead Thing literalizes the hold of toxic relationships and trauma-bonding in a way that effectively reads as a metaphor about codependency, while also remaining elastic enough to invite multiple related interpretations.

Unfortunately, Hunt can only do so much with co-stars who either don’t or aren’t meant to have chemistry with her character.

The slasher-type direction increasingly taken by the film is a bit silly and awkwardly executed. This is where the film’s Lynchian effects seem most cut-and-pasted. Hunt, though, gives an excellent performance in the lead role

This is a refreshing and emotionally intelligent film, an exercise in style that never holds back on substance.

After a promising start and nice work from Blu Hunt, the film loses its way into a supernatural metaphor for toxic relationships and obsession that never really finds a firm foot.

It has the potential to raise a hitherto fore two-dimensional supernatural figure into the romantic status of vampires regardless of the obvious repulsive downsides if “Nosferatu” (2024) is any indication.

While the movie's points are clear, they're also cliché -- as is the movie's horror. The director's ambition exceeds his grasp, telling a story about characters who are not well-drawn enough to feel either universal or specific.

It tells us a lot about toxic men who can't take no for an answer, and how all they want is to possess women. It's an intriguing concept, and while it doesn't make for the scariest movie ever, I don't think it's without interest. [Full review in Spanish].

A very slow-burn ghost story.

The Dead Thing is one of the more creative and subtle entries of the 2020s renaissance, but it falls just short of greatness.