The premise of Love Me Dead is not as simple as the brief synopsis infers: Reclusive mortician Issac forms bond with waitress Cassi. After harrowing incident, they embark on a path of revenge, blurring lines between reality and fiction in this psychological thriller's tense narrative.  

For one thing, Isaac isn’t simply “reclusive”. He clearly exhibits characteristics and behaviors of neurodiversity (ok, he’s on the spectrum, right?), however it’s brought up as a low-level cerebral palsy condition and goes unmentioned after that brief remark. Interesting.  

I dove directly into that realm while following mortician, Isaac (a compelling role by RJ Mitte) as a guest into his sluggish life of boredom, heartache and reluctance through a doldrum routine: shower, glass of milk with 2 ice cubes, putting on fresh tighty-whities, sitting at the same diner booth for dinner and talking to pretty girls.  

Sorry, pretty DEAD girls. Had I not indicated that he’s a mortician?  

It’s evident that his real home to find peace and solace is in the morgue. Not too creepy, or unpleasant for a young man trying to keep his delusions and fantasies at bay I assume.  

When Isaac encounters waitress Cassi (a distinctive palindrome…clever!), he is instantly smitten and very slowly allows her access into his tormented world. The lingering question throughout their quick courtship is a basic “what does she see in him?” He’s odd, aloof and detached from the spectacle of circus figures which surround him with incessant taunts, primarily spewed from the local liquor store owner, Greg (a sinister performance from Robert LaSardo). Greg is the epitome of an ultimate sleazebag who enjoys verbally torturing Isaac with vile remarks about his “whore mother” and other perversities which eventually trigger his new love, Cassi (the spunky Dove Cameron) after the couple uncover the evilest act of atrocity by a father on his child.  

The revenge is admirable, but the thorn in my side still floats adrift with the confusion of misguided illusions and disconnections that never become cohesive within the big picture of an overcomplicated and underwhelming script.  

The hatred fueled for Greg is dually noted and well deserved (even I had an enormous desire to smack the wicked grin off his face), but it’s just another cover-up for the real sinfulness that lurks behind Isaac’s disguise. With a welcomed operatic background during the vital moments of embalming and “sous vide’ing” the corpses, the disturbing factor finally pokes its head out in foreseeable way, leaving me wanting another catch that I did NOT see coming. Thou I protest too much? Maybe, but the constant obscurity only amplified my disappointment in the end which couldn’t save it from mediocrity even with substantial performances.