Eu:<\/strong> Eugene<\/p>\n\n\n\n El:<\/strong> Elise<\/p>\n\n\n\n P:<\/strong> Peyton<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eu:<\/strong> My first thought watching the movie was like, Is this an advert for some Christian cult?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n El:<\/strong> See, that\u2019s what I thought too! I was like, what is going on here?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eu:<\/strong> Where they\u2019re like, you have to pass it along, have more sex, and it\u2019s like\u2013you have sex one time and then now you\u2019re doomed! You know, even the setting of it, there was almost a timelessness, where you couldn\u2019t quite tell what the era of the movie was. Sometimes it felt like the 70s and 80s and other times it felt like the early 2000s. And it was so suburban, it was like these blonde white girls in their suburban neighborhood and everyone knows each other and they\u2019re all friends\u2013but at the same time there was no religious anything<\/em> in the movie, it was just a sex demon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n El:<\/strong> It felt early 2000s to me. But also they were watching black and white movies a lot. And I remember they had these specific kinds of phones, the rotary phone?<\/p>\n\n\n\n P:<\/strong> Don\u2019t you remember the girl reading the book on that little sliding\u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eu:<\/strong> The e-reader. <\/p>\n\n\n\n P:<\/strong> Yes, and that felt very modern? But also a 2000s modern. It looked like Juno<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eu:<\/strong> Maybe the setting time-wise is early 2000s, but they\u2019re in a suburban, almost rural America. \u2018Cause when they were in line for the movie theater, before the main girl has sex with the guy who gives her the demon, the clothing style and the way the theater looked\u2013it just felt so vintage. Maybe that\u2019s what they were going for: this is the average suburb, this could happen anywhere, it\u2019s timeless, like the sex demon has existed for so long . . . <\/p>\n\n\n\n P:<\/strong> I said this to Elise when we were watching it, it feels like they took all those classic tropes of the 80s and 90s of \u201cthe one who has sex is the one who dies\u201d and ran with it and turned it on its head. It\u2019s not the ones who happen to have sex die first, now it\u2019s anyone who has sex is going to be in danger. And I think your point about it feeling like the 80s and 90s, it\u2019s possible that the director and writer, David Robert Mitchel\u2013it seems like he was definitely inspired by those kinds of movies. Like Halloween<\/em> takes place in a suburban neighborhood in which this killer is running through all these houses and no one seems to care. And this is kind of similar, there\u2019s something running through this suburban neighborhood that only the teenagers can see. That feels very appropriate for the horror movie genre. <\/p>\n\n\n\n El:<\/strong> It\u2019s so fun, it\u2019s so creepy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eu:<\/strong> It was definitely more creepy than jump-scary. But there were moments where I would just see it walking\u2013the time they see the demon walking to the guy she has sex with in the hospital [Greg]–because he doesn\u2019t believe her\u2013and she\u2019s looking out the window at this thing grabbing a brick and breaking the window open, that<\/em> was terrifying! It\u2019s so mundane, there\u2019s not that much of a monstrousness to it . . . It\u2019s just so human, in a way that is vaguely upsetting. I did think it was interesting that it seems to kill the person and then have sex with them? Like when it kills that neighbor and he thinks it\u2019s his mom, it just stares at him and then it jumps on him. I can\u2019t quite tell how he died, I\u2019m assuming it\u2019s some physical trauma. It\u2019s hinted throughout the movie that it has this supernatural strength. And it\u2019s so clever, too\u2013the scene in the swimming pool. Where they\u2019re trying to kill it with the toaster machines, and it knows what they\u2019re planning and starts throwing the electronic objects into the pool with them. That was fucking wild. <\/p>\n\n\n\n P:<\/strong> The scariest part for me\u2013and in my memory this was also very scary for Elise\u2013it was actually when we moved inside the house\u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n El:<\/strong> Oh god<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n P:<\/strong> \u2013after she first has sex and sees it and goes home, and that guy [Paul] is staying up with her and it enters the house for the first time . . . That for me was the scariest moment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n El:<\/strong> We were screaming.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n P:<\/strong> We were screaming! We really have to give props to the director, Mitchell. What was so impressive to me was how the camera movement itself became part of the horror. It wasn\u2019t just, oh there\u2019s something creepy happening.<\/em> If the camera stayed still, you\u2019re going, \u201cWhat\u2019s in the background, what\u2019s in the background? Something has to be there.\u201d And if the camera was moving\u2013you know in that first scene that established this continuously-moving camera\u2013then it\u2019s like, \u201cWhat am I looking for, what am I looking for? Where is it coming from?\u201d So it used the camera like that, it used space like that; so then establishing this camera movement in, like you said, a suburban space where there\u2019s a lot of empty streets and sidewalks and open air\u2013and then to move it inside the house. And have it slowly move between these dark, open doorways, that was crazy. I felt more claustrophobic there than watching a scene with actual claustrophobia. It was scary to me! Very<\/em> scary to me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Eu:<\/strong> That scene when Jay sees the creature in the kitchen and she runs upstairs and slams the door and all her friends are like, \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong, what\u2019s going on?\u201d And they\u2019re trying to get her to open the door, that was a really stressful scene. They open the door and the friend is standing there and then the tallest<\/em> man you\u2019ve ever seen just swoops in and as it\u2019s happening the camera pans upwards to show you how tall this man is\u2013whew! <\/p>\n\n\n\n El:<\/strong> I can\u2019t believe that guy really played this long con with the main character, like get her to trust me and have sex with me\u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n P: <\/strong>Elise and I talked about this, you know . . . Eugene, you mentioned it being some conservative religious thing because you have sex and you die, but at the beginning it was really serving as a function of rape. Where he drugged her, kidnapped her, like\u2013had sex with her beforehand, but still completely betrayed her trust and then, he kinda said something like, \u201cThis happened to me too.\u201d Or \u201cThey did this to me too.\u201d I think when Jay runs away to the swing set and her friends follow her and the neighbor follows her, he says something like, \u201cWhat really<\/em> happened to you?\u201d There\u2019s this implicit layer of rape underneath that disappears towards the second half, but [the movie] is clearly interested in the many ways that sex unfolds between people. And how violent it can be.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eu:<\/strong> At some point, I was kind of like, is this an STD\/STI thing\u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n El:<\/strong> I think that\u2019s the common joke about this movie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eu: <\/strong>\u2013like I got it too, you have to give it to someone else<\/em>. Don\u2019t have sex, you\u2019ll die from a sex demon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n El:<\/strong> So the people that they see, these are all people that have been affected as well, or the ones who died from it? I thought the girl from the beginning was one of them\u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n P:<\/strong> She was, but it also turns into her [Jay\u2019s] friend at the beach. And at the very end, it also turns into her father. <\/p>\n\n\n\n El:<\/strong> It\u2019s people they know<\/em>, it\u2019s people they don\u2019t<\/em> know . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eu:<\/strong> I think that\u2019s also what tipped me towards an STI, it\u2019s like the people you know can betray you. It can also be sexual assault, it can be anyone you know or a stranger . . . I think you\u2019re onto something about how it takes all of these common fears about sex and what sex is in society and how it impacts women and . . . it kind of did it all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n P:<\/strong> On a horror level what was also impressive\u2013like how the supernatural creature works\u2013was how slow-moving it is, but still how scary it is. Just because it\u2019s moving slowly doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not scary. It can be terrifying. I feel like that constant, unrelenting movement is also part of the fear. It doesn\u2019t matter that it\u2019s walking slowly, it will not stop. It\u2019s always coming for you, that\u2019s always in the back of your head. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/closereadblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Screen-Shot-2022-11-14-at-7.58.10-PM.png?resize=1024%2C421&ssl=1\")
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