Dear David

I have never really understood why some things have become so popular online that´s trending on social media that suddenly makes certain people or events really big. Maybe it´s a generation thing and i may not be a part of that since im turning 47 years old this year. I am completely fine with that since for me social media is more about connecting with people worldwide than me getting likes about something. Trending online seems to be changing every single day and especially on social media apps like TikTok. If you personally enjoy making TikTok videos i see no problem with that, i just personally don´t feel very interested in apps like that. I do watch videos on YouTube sometimes regarding politics but mostly movie reviews from other film critics. But what happens when a viral clip becoms so popular online that someone decides to make a full feature film to make a film based on that specific viral clip? That´s exactly what happened back in the year of 2012 when director Craig Moss directed the action film Bad Ass, loosely based on the 2010 AC Transit Bus fight viral video. So what happened on this bus? Two men under the name of Thomas Bruso and Michael Lovette argued over an unspecified matter, which led Lovette throwing a punch and Bruso responding beating him to the floor. A passenger filmed this fight and Bruso became a YouTube sensation called "Epic Beard Man". I have seen the video and it was insane to see. But the fact that a film was made inspired by this viral video shows you that any idea can be made into a film. The film itself is actually not too bad with legendary actor Danny Trejo playing the lead role in a simple action film. There are 2 sequels that i have not seen because it felt like they were just milking it out by making sequels just to cash in on DVD sales. Speaking of viral sensations how many of you heard of the Twitter viral hit of Dear David back in 2017? I knew nothing about it until i saw a trailer for a film called Dear David coming out last year based on tweets by a cartoonist who claimed his home was haunted by the spirit of a child. I have not read much about this and decided to watch the film based on these tweets just to see if this could be an interesting plot for a film. Is it possible Dear Davis is actually a well made horror film you should see or is this trash just like Anna Book´s awful samba studio album Samba Sambero ( yes that´s the actual title of the album, don´t ask me why ) released back in 2007?

The year is 1996 and David ( Cameron Nicoll ) is a young boy obsessed with the internet, sitting down in the dark of his parents basement. David gets bullied over a crude drawing on instant messaging, and retaliates against them. We move forward to the year of 2017 where we meet comic artist Adam Ellis ( Augustus Prew ) who works at BuzzFeed creating content for online readers. One night while dealing with trolls online he gets a message from someone who calls himself Dear David. Adam don´t really think much about it until he sees the figure of a young boy sitting in his rocking chair, Adam begins to wonder if his home is haunted. Not knowing what is going on, Adam is about to find out that this boy known as David have a horrible past that will affect Adam´s life as well.

Ok, this review is a bit different from the usual reviews that i do since this film is actually inspired by a Twitter thread. That means this is not a typical film with a plot that we usually see, so i suppose in one way you could say that at least this film is a bit more original in that sense. So how do you make a film based on that and make it work on the big screen? It would have to be from a director who understands how you transform something such as a Twitter thread into an actual plot. Does it work for this film Dear David? I would say yes and no and i will get into the details that works most of all. First off i think the background story of the child David is interesting, that when he was killed his soul stayed on the web back in 1996 and manage to come back with the help of online chat rooms, where he finds his victims. This is actually a pretty cool idea for a horror film if you are going to use the internet in a story with horror influences. The main character Adam Ellis ( played by actor Augustus Prew from TV series Pure Genius ) do have an interesting personality, even though we only get to know just a little bit about him. I especially enjoy actress Andrea Bang as Adam´s friend and working collegue Evelyn, her scenes are usually light hearted and you just like her charisma for being so wonderful. Actor Justin Long gives the best performance in this film as the boss of BuzzFeed known as Bryce. Ok, so now we get to some of the issues i have with this film and let us begin with the CGI effects. There are some horrible scenes in this film with CGI effects that doesn´t help the horror scenes at all. Especially one scene where CGI David attacks Adam in his apartment towards the end and it feels really cheap. One scene i don´t even understand why they decided to put in this film is a scene where Adam is controlled by a joystick. Not only is the scene ridicolus but it doesn´t even work connected to the story. Some of the jump scare scenes falls flat simply because they are constructed very poorly. If you are going to use jump scares you have to put some effort into these scenes or they become pointless. Dear David had some interesting ideas for a horror film and i did enjoy how the film started. But with too many bad choices along the way and the weak CGI effects this film ends up becoming easily forgettable. Director John McPhail should have done this film more focused on the sleep paralysis that´s actually the most interesting part of Dear David, but instead he wasted this idea with cheap CGI effects instead. Too bad, i actually felt this film could have become fascinating if they at least made an effort to make it interesting.

Rating: DD