You _really_ need to be immersed for this movie to work, like you gotta watch it alone without lights. Not even as like a 'challenge', but just because the movie is so slow and the shots are so ambiguous it's very easy to lose your attention. If you watch it with friends, you guys are just gonna be talking the whole time like "OH whats that? is that a face? wait what room is this? have we seen this corner before. OH is that the dad? Did the legos move?" etc. My immersion wasn't great for this movie because I was eating a really yummy bowl of chili, honestly it was REALLY good chili I really knocked it out of…

seeing this in theaters, on a big screen with a rapt crowd, was an early highlight of my 2023. on this viewing the moment-to-moment narrative was a lot clearer to me, and i felt like the size of the screen made it even easier to get lost in all that hypnotic (fake) grain.

i know the use of digital grain has been somewhat contentious but i think it's used pretty brilliantly here. there are so many moments where the swirling patterns on totally indistinct images makes you think the camera is moving, only for a light to turn on and the shot becomes jarringly bolted in place. like derek jarman's blue, your eyes start to play tricks on you and…

Do you enjoy extended shots of walls, ceilings, or pitch black rooms? What about watching lights turn on and off? Are you a fan of movies with absolutely no story or character development? Are you easily impressed by After Effects filters that are noticably on a loop, making the movie look grainy beyond belief? Then have I got the movie for you!! You're going to shit your pants when they dial numbers on the phone and whisper in the darkness. Shiver in fear when nothing happens for ten minutes at a time. Your anxiety will be through the roof when the camera slow pans to an empty hallway or a floor full of legos. You will be forced to cover…