Dear David (2023)

2 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Ghost Tweeter

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

A peculiar mixture of comedy, "true story," and horror, this movie from Anna and the Apocalypse director John McPhail wobbles to and fro, but somehow never topples, and is all the more likable for it.

Anna did the same thing, moving into unexpected spaces, going dark when we expected humor, and vice-versa, and Dear David continues with that appealingly off-kilter storytelling.

Cartoonist Adam Ellis (Augustus Prew), who works for BuzzFeed, finds himself in a rut. He has trouble speaking openly with his partner Kyle (René Escobar Jr.), and his editor (Justin Long) has been breathing down his neck about his low numbers. He's also obsessed with reading and responding to internet trolls who comment on his work.

When Kyle leaves for a trip, Adam hunkers down and tries to come up with something edgier in his work. Meanwhile, an internet troll called "Dear David" begins following him. Not long after, he begins seeing things in his apartment, like a chair rocking itself, and a ghost boy with part of its head missing. He then begins experiencing terrifying encounters in which he appears in strange places, witnessing sinister events.

With the help of his best work friend Evelyn (Andrea Bang), Adam must find out what's really going on, or else he fears that "David" will kill him.

Prew is very funny in the role of Adam, a misfit artist who somehow can't help but get himself into trouble. And he's surrounded by other funny types, including Justin Long as the BuzzFeed editor who talks about taking Adam's story into "all four quadrants."

So when McPhail kicks in with the horror stuff, including some truly unsettling hallucinations/visions, we're never quite ready for how dark it's going to get. At one point, when Adam wakes up hanging out of his apartment window in the rain, we realize that, no matter how funny and likable he is, he's actually in peril here.

McPhail weaves themes of social media and technology — including spot-on parodies of "listicles" — in and out of the story, illustrating its insidious hold over us; it's more of a "monster" than David is.

McPhail doesn't give much consideration to the "true story" aspect of Dear David — it feels like fiction — but his juggling act with the rest of the material is impressive, and entertaining.