{"id":41048,"date":"2023-10-11T14:05:39","date_gmt":"2023-10-11T18:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=41048"},"modified":"2023-10-11T14:26:22","modified_gmt":"2023-10-11T18:26:22","slug":"dear-david-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2023\/10\/11\/dear-david-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Dear David (2023)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In 2017, a weird ARG by the name of \u201cDear David\u201d popped up online that became an instant viral sensation. It was the timeline of Buzzfeed cartoonist Adam Ellis who was documenting the supposed haunting of his apartment by a small disfigured boy. What began as a series of tweets and fuzzy pictures of unusual shapes hiding in the crevices of his one bedroom apartment slowly escalated in to horrifying taunts, and nightly visits as the apparent apparition became bolder and began to drive David to the brink of madness. \u201cDear David\u201d is an okay adaptation of the original viral thread, and while it\u2019s by no means a home run of a horror film, it works in rare instances as a tech based thriller.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Shortly after comic artist Adam (Augustus Prew) responds to Internet trolls, he begins experiencing sleep paralysis \u2014 while an empty rocking chair moves in the corner of his apartment. As he chronicles increasingly malevolent occurrences in a series of tweets, Adam begins to believe he is being haunted by the ghost of a dead child named David. Encouraged by his boss to continue the \u201cDear David\u201d thread, Adam starts to lose his grip on what is online\u2026and what is real.<\/p>\n

\u201cDear David\u201d works well when McPhail and writer Mike Van Waes are in synch with the tone of the original Twitter thread, but when it fails, the movie never really overcomes its tonal inconsistencies and inherent lack of back story behind \u201cDear David.\u201d There is a lot that we get to know about \u201cDear David\u201d but for some reason writer Mike Van Waes never extrapolates a lot of Dear David\u2019s origin. Van Waes writes \u201cDear David\u201d like a tech version of \u201cCandyman\u201d but never offers a glimpse in to his mythology, nor does he really build up the monster. Is David evil or a tragic monster? Why is David sentient and benevolent? What is his power? What is he intending to do to Adam? Is he trying to drive Adam crazy, or is he just getting off on being inexplicably and randomly evil?<\/p>\n

As for Adam he\u2019s also not well developed as he seems to be facing a lot of difficulties involving relationships. The problem is that we never get an explanation as to why Adam is so closed off from his world and his friends. It just seems like a character trait tacked on to create the necessary conflict to introduce David and not actually add substance to the character. For what it\u2019s worth Augustus Prew is very good in the lead role of Adam, and I loved how much Phails channels the aesthetic and feel of New York City, making the city feel claustrophobic. There are some neat bits and scares that are pulled off including some dream sequences, as well as a moment involving Dear David being projected on to a television screen on his rocking chair.<\/p>\n

I was also a fan of the overtones of impostor syndrome and the inherently rotting effect that online bullying and trolls can take on someone. I just wish Phails devoted so much more time to building tension and allowing our imaginations to complete the terror like the original ARG did. \u201cDear David\u201d is by no means the worst horror movie of the year, as it gets by on charm and atmosphere, but it felt like they could have gone so much further with Adam Ellis\u2019 concept. Solid and serviceable is fine, but I was hoping for an unnerving and terrifying experience.<\/p>\n

In select Theaters, On Digital and On Demand on October 13th<\/sup>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2017, a weird ARG by the name of \u201cDear David\u201d popped up online that became an instant viral sensation. It was the timeline of Buzzfeed cartoonist Adam Ellis who was documenting the supposed haunting of his apartment by a small disfigured boy. What began as a series of tweets and fuzzy pictures of unusual […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,12],"tags":[64,477,1401,2123,703,1008],"class_list":["post-41048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-halloween-horror-month","category-movie-reviews","tag-adaptation","tag-horror","tag-lgbt","tag-lgbtq","tag-mystery","tag-supernatural"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41048"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41334,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41048\/revisions\/41334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}