I have (thankfully) been out of the dating pool for quite some time now, and short films like Text Me Back, Dammit make me so happy I am. Dating can be scary enough, but even when you find the right one, things can go very wrong.
A man’s date disappears after their first date, leaving behind a trail of questions and nightmares.
Text Me Back, Dammit, HHFF
Don and Mark drunkenly make it back to Mark’s house, roused and ready for a night of fun. But in the heat of it all, Mark finds himself in a living nightmare with his partner acting in a strangely threatening way. The next morning he finds Don gone. The story slowly comes to light when Don does return and fills Mark in on his untimely demise.
When I pressed play on Text me Back, Dammit, I thought I was going to be in for a paranormal haunting that made a demonic Don hunt Mark down over the course of a few days. But what I got instead was a heartwarming story of two people not only finding love, but understanding and acceptance. Y’see, Don dies and decided to come back in a very funny way, hiding in the shadows as if he were going to hurt Mark. Apparently, begging your phone for someone to reply back to you is enough to summon a lost loved one.
There’s no gore and extremely minimal scares in Text Me Back, Dammit. Instead, we get dark humor mingled in with dating jokes and tropes about one night stands. Don and Mark’s interactions feel real, and they absolutely sell their connection. And although Text Me Back doesn’t automatically come off as horror, it manages to change our perceptions on one of the most common fears we all have: death.
A pretty sweet ending to a frightening realization, Text Me Back, Dammit gave me that fuzzy feeling inside; rather than focusing on death as something to fear and stay away from, these 10 minutes made their final goodbye a peaceful one and something to look forward to. Horror doesn’t always have to be bad, sometimes it’s a means to an end in helping us deal with our troubles. If you think about it, death is actually a sweet embrace for some.
This and other films are available to screen at the 2026 Haunted House FearFest Film & Video Game Festival. Follow the festival for more!
