Genre mashups are here to stay, I guess — in life as well as in art. After a century during which people formed opinions with the help of mass media — democratizing forums such as magazines, newspapers, radio, movies, television, and the early internet — most now reach their conclusions based on a patchwork collage of references, allusions, and data points.

Add to that mix the seemingly unstoppable prerogatives of globalism, and you have a culture in which (as a recent movie title had it) “everything, everywhere all at once” has become the status quo. Creative types can fall victim to this overstimulated zeitgeist, or they can do their best to articulate themselves in ways that are kinder, gentler, and maybe just a touch critical. Welcome, Mali Elfman, director and writer of “Next Exit.”

This is Ms. Elfman’s debut as a feature filmmaker, and it’s to her credit that a movie that initially comes off as arch ultimately takes on a welcome humanism. Sure, the story is somewhat predictable — boy meets girl, you know the routine — but it’s also idiosyncratic enough to waylay the viewer’s cynicism. Any artist who manages the latter is worth taking note of.

First, though, about those mashups. This film is “It Happened One Night” meets “The Walking Dead” meets the denouement of “Soylent Green” — you probably remember, the scene in which Edward G. Robinson willingly capitulates to the great beyond. Pit stops are made at “Ordinary People,” “Sullivan’s Travels,” and a droll Japanese comedy, “After Life.” Oh, and ghost stories, lots of ghost stories. 

Is Ms. Elfman familiar with “Terrified,” the splendid horror film from Buenos Aires directed by Demián Rugna? “Next Exit” has a similarly rueful take on the tangled webs we can’t help but weave.

All of which makes Ms. Elfman’s film sound like an insufferable, pop-wise pastiche — but it’s not. The tenor of “Next Exit” is low-key and homey, as mundane, familiar, and true as the American landscape through which its characters travel. Rose (Katie Parker) and Teddy (Rahul Kohli) are unhappy 30-somethings who have signed up for a program at Life Beyond, a medical facility run by the alarmingly young Dr. Stevenson (Karen Gillan). Her institute provides volunteers the opportunity to go gently into that good night — like, now.

The afterlife, you see, has been proved to be real or, at least, there. “Next Exit” begins with a nifty scene in which a small boy, ensconced somewhere in fly-over territory, is awakened by something spooky in the closet. Turns out it’s the ghost of his father, who has returned to play a game of cards with his son. This intimate moment neatly transitions into the “verified footage” of a news story about Dr. Stevenson and her controversial experiments. Congress wants to shut down the doctor’s efforts. The Vatican has its own set of qualms.

The setting of “Next Exit” is recognizable but different — emphatically pre-apocalyptic, let’s say. When Rose accidentally drives over a pedestrian somewhere in Kentucky, her horror is tempered by the note he was wielding: “Thanks for the help.” Suicides are up, as are homicides. Not everyone is sanguine about death. When Kate and Teddy pull over at a roadside bar, they engage in a truth-or-dare drinking game with John, a former border guard (Tim Griffin). The truth he elaborates on in his drunken stupor is no less heartbreaking for skirting the melodramatic.

Ms. Elfman and cinematographer Azuli Anderson wash the American landscape in a grizzled run of colors, as if the otherworldly has sapped the here-and-now of saturation and light. Vitality is provided by Ms. Parker and Mr. Kohli, who generate a winning rapport whether they’re about to bite each other’s heads off, attempting to stem the tide of love, or yielding up the car keys. Give “Next Exit” time to warm up: Its road-trip revelations are worth the ride.