Lexi

Well written but ultimately a little shallow. Fun acting

Seeing this film with a live audience was a treat. The “twist” wasn’t the spectacular part. How characters moved through the aftermath of said reveal was cringy and agonizing and delightful. SPOILERS AHEAD This movie encourages discourse about the digital panopticon we all live in, moral posturing and Gen Z. I won’t get into it but Stoobs, on TikTok and instagram, does a breakdown on this that I think is worth watching. I really like how this film takes away all the pomp surrounding how some teenager could end up doing the unthinkable. There are two inserts that I thought made the movie work. (1) a flash of their to-be wedding shot up, and (2) young Emma aiming her gun at a dog - we don’t know if she ended up killing the dog. This gets the audience into the mindset of Charlie, questioning if she is a sociopath or antisocial - which makes his choice to stay with her feel like a more earned leap of trust. Originally, I’d just been like, “okay, but she didn’t shoot up the school and is normal now and teenagers are insane”, so these scenes helped me to feel the stress of Charlie. There’s a side character (fucking Rachel) who is justified in her angst about hearing Emma’s tale and the movie somehow succeeds in making her the most annoying character in the film. I am impressed and delighted by this. I also like that when Charlie confides in his coworker, who is a woman, and asked what she’d do, the coworker mentions that her bf is a big guy and could kill her in a second, which I think subtly speaks to the gendered differences in the fear we face about our partners. I enjoyed watching this with an audience and getting to react in real time in community. Robert Pattinson is a gem. Overall, I really enjoyed this film.

Nothing to write home about, but a fun well-constructed horror. I need more woodsy horror in my life. Let me know if you have any recs.