2023-12-12 18:25:25
Between pastel sitcom and paranoid horror, John McPhail’s film orchestrates the nightmare of a New York comics artist trolled by the evil spirit of a dead boy.
Do not trust the notes and comments, criticisms of those mainly concerned, that is to say us, users of screens and networks: the film is much better than the unspeakable reputation which precedes it. Anti-geek geek film, the first absurdity here of Follow Dead was to change the original title, Dear David, in phase with the real story which inspires it. Adam Ellis, a New York comics artist, fueled a thread that went viral from 2017 to 2018, “documenting” his paranormal nightmare live: seeing himself trolled and then haunted by the evil spirit of a dead boy – this “dear David » murderer, therefore. The film mixes pastel sitcom and paranoid horror in a surprising impure cocktail, contrasting office comedy at BuzzFeed (which produces) and horror in a network of nasty ectoplasms, with, rare enough to be noted, the assumed but totally gay side depressed by his insipid hero. Since Unfriended, we have not seen the specular depression of modern man riveted to the screen addressed. Here, this saturated feeling of anxiety of navigation 2.0, fear of the lack of “popularity” or its counterpart, the harassment at the turn of each click, is treated, and sometimes with talent (the dark room from which no one emerges than the livid luminescence of the screen). Added to this is a more classic story of a dyssocial artist haunted by his worthlessness, his impostor fiasco and his emotional deficit. A film which devotes itself entirely to this terror of failure, by a filmmaker named McPhail (fail = “failure”), can only mark its paradoxical success.
Follow Dead de John McPhail, avec Augustus Prew, Andrea Bang… 1h34.
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