the theory that naim and ryan do run into the real versions of each other in the woods that night actually does make a lot of sense to me. not only because it doesn’t make sense that the entity would act like that (pretend to be ryan by acting afraid, successfully fooling naim) without pushing it to the full extent (using that trust to get close and attack; using their lust and affection against each other as it does throughout the movie). Instead, the ryan naim sees in the woods throws shit at him, attacking first— even though naim assumes the best. if that was the entity, it would’ve exploited that. but the ryan naim meets does not. so there’s that, but also I believe that theory because the throwing-shit method is ryan’s expression of his own internal conflict, something I think the entity would not care enough to take the time to copy as it focused on getting to Naim.
In this situation it’s ryan who thinks naim is the entity, so he reverts to violence the only way he knows how to in the context of being gay. His previous experiences with hunter all involved violence as a precursor to affection. as he lets out his anger at what he imagines to be entity!Naim it of course leads back to that, this thing that has been wearing naim’s face — naim, who he actually cares about; naim, who is the first to have offered him vulnerability without the prerequisite of violence. As it subverts naim’s character, ryan subverts his own role in his relationship with naim to deal with it; as entity!Naim is the opposite of the care ryan has come to associate with naim, how ryan treats it becomes the opposite of how he treats, or would treat, naim. the opposite of his relationship with naim, eg his relationship with hunter. the entity targets ryan’s desire for naim and uses it against him, making affection and sexuality into violence again. and by using ryan’s new trust of naum in order to isolate and attack him, the entity is intended to make being gay into something to be frightened of — a new attempt at enforcing internalized homophobia, meant to force ryan into compulsory heterosexuality: the outcome the church wants from this whole event.
in other words — thematically, it works. it’s the method the entity used against hunter to gain his trust and kill him. it’s the thing that caused ryan and hunter to be cursed by the deliverance healer in the first place, after naum outed them for doing it. it’s everything bad about being gay, every bit of internalized homophobia, that ryan is now throwing directly at the thing trying to use being gay against him. It’s like — poetic justice. sorta. if that makes sense. it’s more thematic if it’s true, in any case, so I’d like to believe it
