SPOILER DISCUSSION

1.Given that the movie is trying to replicate the B-feel of giallo and slasher movies, I feel like the choice to have the characters be shallow in development and having their actors play them in a cheesier fashion was on purpose. In particular, Wallis’s performance feels like direct homage to the off-kilter performances famous in those movies. It doesn’t feel bad as much as it feels intentionally over-the-top at certain moments to sell the melodramatic intensity of certain moments.

2.Emily’s desire to have direct blood connections can be explained by Gabriel’s psychic influence on her sub-conscious. Her brother wants to keep her isolated because they’re the only “real” family members the other one have, as per his opinion. He’s been embedded in her sub-conscious for so long, so it’s not hard to believe that his thoughts bled into hers and influenced them.

At another level, the desire for the “proper blood” feels like a set-up for the sick punch line which is the brutal execution of dozens upon dozens of extras. Emily possessed by Gabriel spills the blood of so many groups of people up to her sister at the end, that the fact that she’s gotten over her desire for proper blood is hilarious. I would hope after spilling a blood bank’s yearly supply out one would realize that all blood is fine.

On a more serious note, it’s fitting that through her exorcism via slasher performance Emily manages to get over her obsession with the nature of certain blood which is a character trait found in every slasher/giallo villain who ends up repeating a series of murders based on a fixing on an archetype of victim. It’s like shock therapy; the villainous desire born from a villain and aligned with genre villains disappears due to its performance.

3.I appreciate how direct the movie is with the nature of Gabriel, who the doctors talk about exercising as a tumor. He’s literally a tumor, so if the audience takes the pronouncements seriously, they’d already know the nature of what’s going on. It reminds me of the way The Bird With the Crystal Plumage and Deep Red give away the culprit initially and then proceed with a mystery as though the viewer is unaware of the same.

4.There’s one needle drop where the song playing feels so out of join with what’s been playing up to that point and the mood of the film that it almost threatens to take the viewer out of the story. However, it’s revealed that the music is diegetic and is actually coming from Emily’s radio. The music is an attempt on her part to retain control of her psyche and the fact that is unable to sustain itself is par for the course; her mind is not her own. I would be interested in looking closer at when the scores start to switch in contrast to Emily’s self of agency – a task for another watch through.

5. Strangely enough, Wan shows multiple establishing shots of Emily’s house; each time the smallness of the house is established. However, every time we follow her into the house, it appears far larger than the inside. It feels like a manifestation of her own body. Much like how Repulsion has the main character’s apartment shift as her mind fractures, Emily’s house is always far larger than it appears on the outside because she houses two entities. Another watch is needed to confirm some things, but given how many establishing shots Wan uses from so many angles, it feels like he’s trying to stress a point.