Review: ‘We Die Alone,’ a short film that packs quite a sucker punch -

What a tangled web we weave when it comes to love. The dating scene is strewn with misconnections, misguided intentions, and mismatched hookups. Smart phones and dating apps have unmistakably changed the landscape forever, and such immediacy comes with as much pleasure as it does a heavy price to pay. Marc Cartwright’s new short horror film, We Die Alone, tucks away into the grisly uncertainty of the digital space, as one young man not only ghosts but teeters on a psychotic break.

Baker Chase Powell (Dolemite is My Name) plays Aidan, an anxiety-ridden thrift store clerk, a real Jeffrey Dahmer type, whose dating life leaves much to be desired. His co-worker Elaine (Ashley Jones, known for roles on The Young & the Restless and The Bold & the Beautiful) counterbalances Aidan’s neurotic personality, often given him dating advice, and behind her comforting demeanor, she harbors an infatuation with Aidan. She seems unable to make that first step, as well, and so, they both hang in a limbo of lovesickness; they just don’t know it.

Meanwhile, new girl named Chelsea (Samantha Boscarino, from Nickelodeon’s How to Rock and Good Luck Charlie) moves into the apartment across the hall from Aidan, and the two immediately strike up a cool, quiet connection over puzzles and a need to be socially disconnected. Their detachments soon claw at the unseen cord that sucks their otherwise unrelated orbits closer and closer until it finally snaps, and mayhem awakens.

Clocking in at 23 minutes, We Die Alone binds the viewer with tight, perfectly crackling slow-burn tension, and Powell dishes up a truly nerve-burning performance ⏤ his slow descent into madness gives off Maniac (1980) fumes. Aidan even has several mannequins he dolls up just like Joe Spinnell’s Frank Zito. Sometimes, he uses printed faces of the many potential lovers he’s ghosted, or, in one particularly unsettling sequence, slips one of Chelsea’s stolen camisoles onto a plastic figure. Aidan certainly has some issues, but nothing compares to what happens next. As his friendship with Chelsea escalates, it quickly becomes clear he may not be well-suited for such intimacy.

Cartwright tugs the viewer into a dark, harrowing tale of love-gone wrong. And what you think you could expect from such a narrative is not it at all. The ending will leave you shellshocked ⏤ branding an impression that maybe love really is a fruitless game. We’re all gonna die alone anyway.

We Die Alone hits Amazon Prime next Friday (August 21), with a release to Gunpowder & Sky’s Alter expected around Halloween.