Universal Studios once took out an ad in Variety Entertainment paper that the Tod Browning directed Dracula was about “The Strangest passion the world has ever known.” Passion, sex, relationships, love and letting go have all been in the genre of horror since the beginning, even today supplanted by buckets of gore. Why not have today's somewhat disposable dating apps and attitudes become the subject point of something more sinister than the awkward morning promises?

The Dead Thing, directed by Elric Kane concerns female tech worker Alex (Blu Hunt) who going through the motions at work and picking up men in the evening. Alex is trapped in this cycle of sensation as she wakes up, goes to work, and then goes online to pick a date she ends up bedding after the seemingly meaningless conversation. Sexuality for Alex becomes more than self-pleasure but less than anything remotely meaningful even during orgasm. Later she returns home and sits in front of the UV light looking like a personal pleasure device charging batteries to start the cycle again. There is a disconnect in her world even with people and relationships, as a subplot of her sister, played by Katherine Hughes, suffers from a poor relationship that she refuses to let go of. At one point, Alex comes home finding her lying on the floor in a wedding dress.

Alex meets Kyle (Ben Smith-Petersen) who has, of all things, a cat as his dating profile picture. It’s mentioned many times that using an animal shows empathy that many women on the apps love, however even that turns out to be misleading. Kyle is something else to Alex because she is losing herself in another’s pleasure. So taken with this man, she pursues him even after the morning parting moments. Even Alex's male co-worker, who was trying to date her, notices how she has changed her outlook on life. Not a good thing when your rival is something you haven’t counted on.

The Dead Thing draws on themes from Demon Seed (1977) and Looking for Mister Goodbar (1977) in more general terms on the myth of the Incubus. Kyle ghosts her in text messages, always playing with her. Alex goes on another date only to see Kyle with another woman whom she follows. She even tries to leave him at the café where he works, only to find that he died months ago, yet she still sees him and lusts after him. When they do meet, Alex pays a terrible cost and enters a new relationship. The spirit world battles for the heart of one human who lets him in and then rejects. The hedonistic temptation comes as what Kyle says and does takes them anywhere without time in pursuit of pleasure and themselves.

Directed by Elric Kane, who co-wrote the screenplay with Webb Wilcoxen, the story on its surface is a haunting with a ghost. Playing into today’s dating culture of people being there yet not there in your online life. Those that play with you or “breadcrumb” you to a point and then leave you wanting. While under the theme of Puritan belief that pleasure is wrong in excess, Alex slowly lets Kyle take possession of her life. Kyle isolates her, all in pursuit of being with her at all costs.

The Dead Thing is a stylish film with lots of spare interiors, cafes, Little LA streets and cool boutique hotels. The picture is well cut, with the story moving mostly in Alex’s case, with the concentration on her eyes that draw you in. Blu Hunt expresses many emotions; attitudes, pleasure, annoyance and happiness with her eyes, hence interesting moments when she is in sunglasses before her UV lamp. The energy drops as Alex is recharging her sexuality, which she takes seriously hedonistically and her ferocious loneliness at the same time until Kyle liberates her into new areas of terror.

Performance-wise, all the players have restrained roles that even seem to taint the non-gratuitous nudity that oddly concentrates Alex's reactions and not Kyle’s. No one seems to be letting go. One wonders if The Dead Thing in the film’s title is Alex, who meets her misery in the form of a stud ghost who says all the right things.

The Dead Thing is a subtle horror dissecting modern dating, depression, and toxic relationships. An oddly fun and dysfunctional first-date film that puts together modern themes of loneliness. Despite all the power to communicate, often many don’t listen. Sometimes one communicates with something you do not want and takes you into a new realm of romantic terror. For better or for worse it is still a ‘strange passion’ and we all have had our heartstrings played by someone who later turns out to be tone-deaf.