“Lifeline” is a Glimmering Thriller of a Film – Review

Josh Stewart shines in Dark Sky Films’ stark thriller Lifeline.

I was provided access to a screener of Lifeline for review. The opinions I have shared are my own.

Trigger Warning for Suicide. Proceed with caution.

The premise of Lifeline, as I mentioned in my interview with director Feras Alfuqaha, hooked me immediately. Suicide has touched me personally, a good friend of mine dying by suicide in 2007 as well as my own struggles with suicidal ideation during college. Add in the now ever-present multiverse theory and alternate dimensions, and I knew this movie was made for me.

Stewart plays Steven Thomas, a man working part-time on a suicide lifeline. We learn right away he’s in a happy family: a wife that loves him, a son that is basically your stereotypical ‘good teen’, and has a nice job in the ‘private sector’ (which is why he’s only part time now).

Thomas is affable: teasing his son about potential girlfriends, demonstrative with his wife, obviously respected by the others at the lifeline facility, and staying in contact with his older brother. He also is smart: we learn he did a research paper on the many worlds theory and has written a memoir.

Finally, he’s caring. You can almost feel his disquiet as he gets a call from a woman named Mary who is obviously in an abusive relationship. But he also has a past he doesn’t really remember or talk about that we gradually learn more about as the movie progresses. And then he gets a call from someone who appears to be a younger him.

And that’s about all I can tell you, as anything else feels like a spoiler.

Stewart is the backbone of the film. While yes, there are others in the film (most notably Judah Lewis as the younger Steven calling), if Stewart was even a little bit off his game, the movie would fold like a house of cards. Thankfully, he is enthralling. He holds your focus throughout the movie, seizing your empathy and giving it to Mary and (eventually) his younger self. It is his performance that makes it easy to embrace the concept of the film.

Of course, the supporting cast is also impressive. Not only the other two Stevens (Lewis and Brecken Merrill), but Charlene Amoia as Steven’s wife Vivian, P.L. Brown as Jerome, and Jocelyn Ayanna as Loretta Williams: mostly small parts, but making every scene count.

I also have to shout out director Feras Alfuqaha. As mentioned in the interview above, this is Alfuqaha’s first full-length film, but you wouldn’t know it. The movie is tightly shot, every scene intentionally leading you to the conclusion. I ended up watching the movie twice, and I caught certain things he did that I hadn’t picked up the first time not knowing the endgame. The pacing is excellent: I spent the entire film with a dawning realization of what may be actually happening.

Writers Brady Morell and Brian Price make every little thing fit. There is not a line said, a prop used, or a view taken that doesn’t somehow relate to what’s going on. And as with Alfuqaha, this is their first full-length movie, which makes it even more impressive. I look forward to what all three of them do next.

Lifeline makes you ponder about how much control you have over life. How much does our past affect our current and future selves? I’ve often wondered where I’d be and what I’d be like had I taken certain ‘turn left’s’ (to use an allegory from Doctor Who). Lifeline takes that idea and spotlights it.

Lifeline premiered in theatres and on VOD/digital platforms on February 21, 2025.

More information can be found on the official website.

Author: Angie Fiedler Sutton

Angie Fiedler Sutton is a writer, podcaster, and all-round fangirl geek. She has been published in Den of Geek, Stage Directions, LA Weekly, The Mary Sue, and others.

She also produces her own podcast, Contents May Vary, where she interviews geeky people about geeky things. You can see all her work (and social media channels) at angiefsutton.com.

Help support independent journalism. Subscribe to our Patreon.

Copyright © The Geekiary