All spoilers will be unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
The Death of Dick Long is a 2019 black dramedy film directed and produced by Daniel Scheinert, one half of the Daniels filmmaking duo (of Swiss Army Man fame), and released by A24.
Dick, Zeke, and Earl are three friends in Alabama who one day decide to spend the night "getting weird". They get drunk and stoned, shotgun tons of beer, shoot off fireworks, and casually play dangerous pranks on each other. The night ends with Zeke and Earl dumping Dick's dying body onto an ER parking lot.
It's not initially clear what happened to him, but whatever happened must not have been good, as the two desperately scramble to try and cover up his death and what led to it, to the best of their (limited) abilities. In the meantime, a doctor at the ER finds Dick's body, and he investigates with the town police over the cause of his death, growing more and more disturbed over its circumstances.
This movie revolves heavily around a major plot twist in its last half, one that alters its course so much that it would be extremely difficult to explain certain tropes of this film without spoiling it. As such, it is highly recommended you view the film before reading through this page (though do note said twist is very squicky), because none of the spoilers on this page are marked.
This film contains examples of:
- Anyone Remember Pogs?: Part of the film's dark, ironic comedy is that all of the songs played by Pink Freud are Post-Grunge tracks that have aged poorly. The credits music is the infamous Nickelback single "How You Remind Me."
- Bad Liar: Zeke and Earl cannot keep up a lie to save their lives. This especially comes to bite Zeke in the ass during the big reveal, where he manages to change his story four times before ultimately telling the truth.
- Bait-and-Switch: The film keeps the means of Dick's death a secret for half the film but provides false leads that would explain Zeke and Earl's extreme guilt over the matter. During the Binge Montage, we see Zeke and Earl prank Dick by setting fire to the couch he passed out on, suggesting that Dick died from an even more dangerous prank. Later, we see Earl carefully setting aside a wicked-looking knife while cleaning up from their night of debauchery, which suggests that all of Dick's blood came from a stab wound. Still later, we're told that Dick died of anal rape, suggesting that Earl and Zeke raped him to death. All of these leads prove false.
- Based on a True Story: Parts of Dick's death were inspired by the infamous "Mr. Hands" case involving a man's death in Enumclaw, Washington.
- Bestiality Is Depraved: Dick died from having anal sex with Zeke's pet horse, Comet. Zeke also reveals the trio have engaged in similar acts with Comet for years, predating Zeke's marriage. This revelation ends Zeke's marriage.
- Binge Montage: When the boys "get weird," we're treated to a long montage of drinking, drugs and dangerous behavior.
- Bittersweet Ending: So bittersweet it almost borders towards a Downer Ending. Zeke and Earl admit that they engaged in sexual activities with animals and that Dick's death was the result of such acts. Lydia estranges Zeke from their family, and he winds up living in a motel with Earl and Lake. However, the authorities decide to cover up the event and release Zeke without charges to prevent a scandal.
- Book Ends: Lake asks Zeke and Earl at the end of the movie the same question that Dick asked them in the beginning: "You wanna get weird?"
- Cluster F-Bomb: A lot of the dialogue in the film is composed of this.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Through the first half of the film, we're made to believe through various Bait-and-Switch suggestions that Zeke and Earl directly killed Dick, which explains their zeal for covering everything up. When it's finally revealed that Dick died from getting fucked by a horse, it becomes apparent that they were never going to be on the hook for murder and could have simply claimed to have had no involvement in Dick's actions that night to avoid the whole fiasco of the coverup.
- Death by Irony: Dick Long is killed by a dick that's too long.
- Dreadful Musician: All three members of Pink Freud are terrible musicians. It doesn't help that they're exclusively shown playing Post-Grunge music that has been condemned by history.
- From the Mouths of Babes: Lydia calls Zeke a "cocksucker" after he reveals what he did and she demands him to get out of their house. Cynthia asks what "cocksucker" means.
- Get Out!: Lydia tells Zeke to "GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE!" after revealing how Dick died.
- Ironic Echo: "You wanna get weird?" Said by Dick at the beginning of the film, and by Lake at the end of the film after all of what they went through. This time, the boys decline.
- Snowball Lie: Many of Zeke's lies are ill-advised and force him to keep extrapolating further lies to explain them.
- Soft Glass: Averted. When Lydia kicks Zeke out of the house, he tries to get back in by breaking the glass by the doorknob. He ends up cutting himself.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: A lot of the film's soundtrack is 2000s Post-Grunge music, which creates an odd (likely intentional) kind of contrast when a serious driving scene is soundtracked by Hinder.
- Wham Line: Dr. Richter reveals a shocking detail to the officers, after the DNA results of Dick's body come back, intercut with Zeke ultimately telling Lydia the truth.Richter: Since then, we've been able to.....nail down something a little more conclusive, if that's what you wanna call it. [..] Like, the semen, the sperm...it's—it's not from a human being. [...]
Dudley: Are you talking about the semen?
Richter: Yes, ma'am.
Spenser: Where the hell did it come from?
Richter: .....it's from a horse. - You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Lydia's reaction when Zeke confesses about what happened to Dick. Who could blame her?
