The intensity of the one-man, one-room thriller The Guilty is mixed with the interdimensional communication of Frequency and an unflinching performance by Josh Stewart to give us Lifeline. This 2025 directorial feature debut by Feras Alfuqaha uses mystery thriller and sci-fi elements as a window to a tense psychological drama where Stewart's Steven confronts his repressed childhood trauma. Falling around the 80-minute mark, Alfuqaha handles the concise, fast-paced storytelling quite well with a particularly stylish direction. This is how he manages to veer away from being just a rehashing of The Guilty and Frequency — Lifelinetruly does stand on its own merits for the majority of its runtime, right until the ending that may leave a bittersweet note in your mouth.