Bere Rosales

It's been a few months since I came across this movie and it still hits hard. Here's the thing, I love ARGs, so slow pacing and a story you only get if you go looking for the sub-subtext, that doesn't bother me, and I feel like it works in the context of the movie because it is meant to be read as an ARG or an internet challenge. To add onto that, I work with trans teens, mostly young gen z and gen alpha. Five minutes into the movie, I could feel all of them within Casey, the isolation, the confusion, the desire to be a part of something bigger but not having the tools to do it. Casey is a kid who lives through the internet, something quite common with younger generations, especially those who spent a large part of key developmental years in COVID lockdown. A large part of the movie is about the isolation that a dependence to the internet creates, one that I am very familiar with and watch in a lot of kids Casey's age. So yeah, it hit hard because the pain that Casey was going through, I know that pain and it was so beautifully and accurately represented. Another thing that I loved is how it deals with transness is a very subtle way. When I watched it, I could feel a trans narrative. I wasn't sure why or how, but the movie felt trans. Afterwards, I googled it to see if i was projecting but it turns out that it was intentionally placed there. I'm still trying to figure out who the director did that. This is definitely not a movie for everyone. It is not a traditional horror movie and you do have to sit through a lot of youtube-style scenes that seemingly go nowhere, and if you aren't used to that, it could feel never-ending and generally boring. But this is a movie that feels honest and real and even if one ends up disliking it, I think it's worth a shot to watch.