Review: ‘Play. Pause. Kill’ gushes with high-voltage carnage

We’re all hungry for human connection. In our most desperate hours, we’ll do almost anything to feel alive again ⏤ and truth be told, the digital space makes our plight even more dire. Written and directed by David Teixeira, new thriller Play. Pause. Kill. circulates through such hopelessness with a keen stylized eye and the impentrable allure of blood-soaked mayhem.

The short follows Julie (Anasthasia Hilda), a self-described loner working on a new screenplay. She can’t seem to find much inspiration, though, and so she distracts herself by flirting with Henry (Lucas Dutilleul) over text. It’s your classic dating app hook-up, but when they finally meet up later that night, each perhaps expecting some Netflix & Chill with a spooky movie, things go awry and fly off the rails pretty quickly.

Teixeira works magic with a tight-script and appropriate first-person perspective camera work, heightening the raw intimacy shared between Henry and Julie. It’s unsettling, borrowing an almost vintage ’70s sensibility with a modern neon glow. Even more, Hilda’s lead performance switches from endearing to downright haunting. Teixeira, whose previous short film work is absolutely exemplary, overturns genre expectations in the knick of time. He assaults your senses with perfectly gummy carnage candy, a pay-off in the film’s final few minutes that’s just so satisfying.

Play. Pause. Kill. hits YouTube and Vimeo on Halloween.

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