go go garraty!!

Thinking about how the beginning of the movie introduces the idea that he is so fearful — afraid of the snake, afraid of heights, and the threat of the spider. Afraid of his and Ryan’s reflection as they’re making out. He’s so scared, and he’s just a kid, and we see over and over again this childlike trust he has in the people who are supposed to help him.

Why does he go to Hunter’s parents? Obviously there was some aspect of jealously, but Hunter and Ryan were also actively hurting each other. He doesn’t just watch them make out. He watches them pelt each other with fucking rocks and I think it was scary enough for him to regress into the idea that they genuinely needed help.

So, he does what he was raised to do. He asks for help. He watches Hunter get dragged in to the dark and he goes to the cops and he asks for help. He has that nightmare and he asks his mom for help. He’s attacked by an evil entity and he runs into the gas station asking for help and NO ONE IS HELPING HIM. Not the church, not the cops, or Izzy, or his mom.

In the end at the mill, entity Ryan tells him again that they want him to be afraid. Then in the daylight IN THAT SAME PLACE his mom confirms it. She tells him he needs fear. HE ALREADY HAS IT. He was already afraid at the beginning of the movie!!!! He’s been afraid the whole fucking time !!!!

And as my good personal friend Henry Chang once said “If you cannot be unafraid, be afraid and happy.”

Obsession (2026)

Backrooms (2026)

Leviticus (2026)

ryan is oblivious here, he’s taking naim completely at face value. nope, never been there before. and we can see the way a little of the tension leaves naim, a relaxing around the shoulders, because he’s hearing meaning ryan didn’t intend. you’re my first. there’s no one else. and ryan quickly follows it with don’t tell anyone, yeah? it’s to be their secret—the kiss and their new haunt, and of course the fact that ryan is gay. naim is more than happy to oblige, not only because he doesn’t want to be outed, but this is the first time since moving to this stupid town that he has something which isn’t just his own.