Stupid Smart, Proudly Scruffy

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MOVIE REVIEW
Someone Dies!
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Genre: Comedy, Sci-Fi
Year Released: 2024, 2025
Runtime: 1h 26m
Director(s): Justin Petty
Writer(s): Justin Petty, Amy Anderson
Cast: Joseph Graham, Anthony Obi, Adam Edwards, Amy Anderson, John Wessling
Where to Watch: available on VOD October 21, 2025

RAVING REVIEW: SOMEONE DIES! is proof that lo-fi sci-fi can still feel fresh when it leads with personality. Set almost entirely inside a creaky Houston apartment, the film builds a butterfly-effect satire out of a desperate dad, an ominous letter, and a time-warping contraption that looks like it was assembled during a garage-sale speed run. It’s proudly rough around the edges by design, and that handmade quality becomes part of the joke. When characters insist the device is “teleportery, witchcrafty,” you believe them because the film’s world embraces the ridiculous without apology.

Jim (Joseph Graham) is a deadbeat father and half-functioning detective who stumbles into a situation he’s not equipped to manage: a cryptic warning about his daughter’s safety, a Craigslist exchange, and neighbors who seem just competent enough to create bigger problems. The discovery of a time-skipping kitchen sink turns chaos into something more, and the film finds its groove in the way cause and effect keep colliding. Petty’s approach is closer to a wind-up toy than a puzzle box—you watch the characters set off unintended chain reactions and then scramble to patch the holes they’ve made.

The ensemble is the key. Graham plays Jim like a man who’s perpetually one choice behind his consequences—frustrating in life, very funny on screen. Amy Anderson, who also contributes to the script, combines exasperation and heart; her presence grounds the nonsense so that the stakes never vanish behind the jokes. John Wessling leans into lovable-lunk with just the right amount of charm, a cadence that keeps the banter alive. Adam Edwards as Ivan, a walking disaster with a butterfly knife and misplaced confidence. And then there’s Anthony Obi, whose turn as a wigged “wizard” slides in exactly the right spice: a laid-back presence that winks at the film’s hip-hop DNA without turning it into a gimmick.

The film doesn’t just say it’s local; it feels local in its casting, rhythm, and cheap-but-clever ingenuity. That sense of place gives the humor an elasticity—you hear it in line script, in throwaway references, in the comfort the performers have with one another. The measure of scenes often resembles a strong improv team locking into a bit. Not every riff is gold, but the batting average is high enough to keep the smile going between big swings.

The ceiling and the limit are the same thing: the movie’s sketch-forward personality—the first half hums on discovery and escalation. The second half, while still funny, occasionally loops a moment too many or stalls a hair before the next arrives. A few gags chase diminishing returns; a few turns toward sentiment arrive quickly and leave just as fast. That said, the film earns its length more often than not by stacking payoffs—objects and lines reappear with a new punch, and choices we laughed at earlier return with consequences that actually sting.

Under the mess lies a familiar ache: a dad who wants to fix what he broke and doesn’t know how. Time travel, in this context, becomes a metaphor for all the ways we rewrite our own blame—if only I’d done X, if only I hadn’t said Y, I could have kept the people I love from getting hurt. The movie lets that hurt peek through the cracks without smothering the comedy. When the plot clears its last hurdle, it lands on a note that’s less “lesson learned” and more “lesson noticed,” which is fitting for a character who’s still catching up to himself.

The film embraces constraint. It’s shot without polish for polish’s sake—angles that serve the joke, cuts that protect timing, lighting that highlights practical effects instead of hiding them. Those effects are smartly prioritized: temporal scars and make-up that sell the rules of the device without requiring exposition dumps. The sound design sneaks in as a hero, too; bleeps, clacks, and synth burbles give the contraption a tactile presence that makes the apartment feel like it’s breathing right along with the characters.

As for the music, it appears as a signature rather than a declaration. A credit-crawl track caps the film with a grin; a few needle-drops nudge the mood without elbowing it. The film resists the easy “genre mashup” sell and stays focused on its people. That choice pays off: you remember the arguments and the side-eyes more than the gadgets, which is the difference between a premise and a movie.

If you come looking for a spotless narrative, this isn’t that. It’s deliberately messy, and occasionally that mess splashes onto the pacing. But if you come for a home-built contraption powered by timing, character, and a stubborn desire to make you laugh at disaster, there’s a lot to like. SOMEONE DIES! wears its ambition on its sleeve and backs it up with a cast that knows how to keep a bit alive. The result is scrappy, clever, and unexpectedly sweet in its approach to accountability. It gets where it’s going—and has fun knocking into the furniture on the way.

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[photo courtesy of HIDDEN JIM PICTURES]

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