FANTASIA 2020 REVIEW: DON'T TEXT BACK

A hilarious portrayal of online dating, DON’T TEXT BACK is the story of a naive young woman who seeks the help of an energy healer to rid herself of a cursed necklace that strangles her every time she doesn’t text back her bad Tinder date.

Starring: Danielle Lapointe, and Nancy Webb

Directed and written by: Mariel Sharp, and Kaye Adelaide

A Fantasia International Film Festival Review

  Many people have experienced the horrors of online dating. Sometimes you find that person that isn’t your type, but you can’t get rid of them. In “Don’t Text Back,” Kelly (Danielle Lapointe) is having trouble ditching a guy she met on Tinder. It should be as easy as not texting back, but unfortunately for her she put on a cursed necklace that strangles her if she doesn’t text him back. This story begins when she visits Jaren (Nancy Webb), an energy healer, for help. 

  Jaren is definitely an interesting character, as she’s a straight shooter, and set in her unusual ways. Kelly isn’t ready for this, and wants to go before revealing the necklace. Almost on cue, she gets a text, and begins to be choked before texting back. It’s a little awkward, but it peeks Jaren’s interest and should do the same for the audience. They talk a little more about how this all happened, and who this guy is. For very unexpected reasons, Jaren is now all in on helping solve Kelly’s problem.

  In order for this short to work, a lot of it is going to fall on the shoulders of Danielle and Nancy, and they do a fabulous job of nailing their characters. They play off of each other so well, and certainly are helped by the differences in their characters’ personalities. It had to be hard for Nancy to keep her character so serious with some of the funny things she says. Danielle’s blank expression in response to many of those things just adds to the humor of it all. To top things off, “Don’t Text Back” creates a great ending very fitting of the characters, and reason that this all happened. There’s no doubt that this film will be a hit at Fantasia, and the many other festivals it will be playing at. 

 HorrO

“Don't Text Back” is playing as part of the Underground Section at Fantasia 2020 Virtual Festival.

More about this film at: http://promotehorror.com/2020/08/17/queer-horror-short-dont-text-back-to-screen-at-fantasias-underground-section/