“Dead Friend Forever” (DFF) started out rather slowly paced, gained a lot of momentum in the middle, however, by episode 8, the show provided too much unnecessary exposition and plot that did not quite tie in, and fell short in their resolution which resulted in a subpar finale. However, as a slasher/horror series, it delivered on the scares, gore, and delved into the horrors of the human mind which acts as a cautionary tale against bullying and being complicit in the face of others’ wrongdoings.

“Dead Friend Forever” follows the story of Non (Barcode Tinnasit Isarapongporn), who is an outcast at school, but inexplicably turns out to be a good script writer and is recruited into Por’s (Us Nititorn Akkarachotsopon) squad, who are a bunch of aspiring filmmakers. The group consists of Jin (Cooper Phuriwat Chotiratanasak), who is the most well-meaning of the group and is genuinely nice to Non, Tee (JJay Patiphan Fueangfunuwat), a bully, who manipulates Non into a horse accounts scam and Top (Jet Jetsadakorn Bundit) who helps Tee recruit Non into the accounts scheme, and Fluke (Bump Pawat Akkradetsakul). Although the squad allows Non into the group to help with the film, he is still an outcast and is constantly being berated, called unpleasant names and bullied, however, Non still tolerates this behavior because he is also excited about his script coming to life.

When Tee manipulates Non into joining his uncle’s horses accounts scam, Non’s life takes a turn for the worst as he is now indebted to a mob boss. In order to remove some heat from himself, Non and Tee both manipulate the rest of the squad into opening accounts, however, this is soon discovered, which digs Non into more of a hole with the mob boss, further leading him into a downward spiral. Despite already dating Phee (Ta Nannakun Pakapatpornpob), Non becomes involved with a teacher, who turns out to be an undercover investigator after the mob. Mr Keng (JJ Chalach Tantijibul) manages to bail Non out, but he also seduces him and when they have sex, Jin records them and leaks the sextape in a fit of jealous, as it turns out Jin also had a crush on Non.

Upon the release of the sex tape, Non’s life completely shutters once again, with his parents and boyfriend being cross with him, Non reaches rock-bottom once again. Non quickly discovers that the squad has taken over his script without giving him much credit and want to shun him, and Tee further drugs Non and takes him to his criminal uncle to pay off the rest of his debts. To the rest of the world, Non seemingly ran off with Mr. Keng after the sextape was leaked, and due to the lack of investigation over the matter, the news and circumstances drive both of Non’s parents to death.

In a quest for real answers as to Non’s fate, Phee and New/Tan (Mio Athens Werapatanakul) infiltrate the squad in order to get answers and this quickly spirals into a quest for revenge for New/Tan, who is Non’s brother, and believes that Non would want vengeance upon the people who harmed him. Phee and Non then decide to find out the truth by drugging the gang with psychedelics, which led to everyone experiencing hallucinations and many of the members of the gang meeting their death at Jin’s farewell party, as Jin was set to go to America to further his studies.

While initially the show does not make it clear whether it was dealing with the supernatural, the occult or it was merely in the characters’ minds, the show failed to provide proper exposition to ground the storytelling properly, which they needed in order to pull off their crazy plot twist in the finale. Filmmakers tend to walk the line and not differentiate much between thriller and horror; the series’ use of gratuitous gore, while it does toe the line of horror, failed to execute on the actual horror and thriller that a slasher should deliver. Episodes 4-7 were the highlight of the show because they provided proper plot and moved the story meaningfully, which somehow stalled by episode 8 and the rest of the show became a spiral into nothingness.

The writers over-complicated some characters and provided much unneeded development. This seems counter-intuitive to think about characters in a show, but this wouldn’t apply for a slasher/horror such as this. With a revenge story, we need to see revenge being exerted. Tee was a terrible character that did not need to be sanitized at all. While everyone did their share in hurting Non, Tee, who gets a redemption arch through White (Fuaiz Thanawat Shinawatra) (although this is also taken away from him) did not deserve any of the character development and should have been the first one maimed like Por was.

A lot happens in the series, with 12 episodes, spanning 3 years, and yet when you think about it, nothing substantial happens. While the actors did a fine job, the script was a bit all over the place because of the time jumps. Sometimes chronology doesn’t take anything away from the suspense but makes the story more cohesive and easier to follow, as well as fills the blanks as they come up, instead of jumping all over the place which creates unnecessary plot holes and may lead viewers to become impatient with regard to the climax of the show. The finale was a complete letdown for a show that was fun, albeit dragged on for unnecessarily too long. The writers did not want to commit to anything with regard to the characters. No one could be all that good or all that bad, except White. The third act, wherein everyone was riddled with guilt over how Non died was not realistic because none of the other characters knew of Non’s precise death, nor were they directly responsible in any meaningful way, except Tee of course. Tan’s quest for revenge was misguided at best and may have stemmed from the guilt he felt from not being close to his brother, however, the level of gore displayed would ideally stem from a place of anger and not guilt, which created a feeling of disconnect between Tan and Phee’s motives for revenge. The drugs may have taken things to an unforeseeable and unplanned extreme, but this was also a bit far fetched after it turned out that nothing supernatural was actually happening in the woods.

By the end of the series, it seems Phee and Jin are stuck in the woods?? Are they also dead? Did one of them suffer some kind of psychosis, and we are in their head? This is unclear and not quite as clever as the writers may have thought it was. Open endings are more than welcome in horrors, but they need to at least be clever, considering that the audience invests months into the development of the story.

The way the story is told, it’s like even the audience was also in a drug induced trance, where a lot was happening but not really. There was barely any resolution in the series, but rather the cheap shot at a “twist” that we had to go along with. The cast had great chemistry and it was a believable slasher series, however, it would have been more fun has the writers chosen not to take themselves too seriously with this genre, because it leads to the story being over complicated, characters being given more than they need and the audience being provided with a calorie dense series that has very little substance.

Rating- 3 out of 5

Streaming on- IQIYI