This was the first Halloweeny title I found on my Netflix list. It also happened to be leaving Netflix today. Sorry if you wanted to see it there but read this too late.
College undergrad Jay (Maika Monroe) has casual sex with "Hugh" (Jake Weary), only to learn that he's not whom he claimed to be and has dishonorable intentions toward her. He forcefully conveys that he has been stalked by a killer monster invisible to everyone it hasn't targeted yet, and the only way he knows to get it off his trail, at least temporarily, is to have sex so it goes after the partner instead. He does want her to survive too, if only because the monster will turn its attention back to him otherwise. Most of the movie consists of Jay escaping the monster, often with help from her true friends, who vary in how much they believe her. And yes, she keeps the pass-it-on option in mind.
What sort of monster? Well, it always appears in one human form or another. It shows some measure of psychic intelligence by knowing where its quarry is and occasionally looking like a loved one, but it never speaks -- or blinks, AFAICT. We can usually identify it right away by its plodding but relentless beeline, often coupled with a creepy appearance. Once in a while, it improvises weapons, but it mostly goes empty-handed and is superhumanly tough. The movie has a low body count (in both senses), but the victims we see are quite brutalized.
More than one source includes "mystery" among the genres, but I don't, because almost no questions are answered. Clearly, the filmmakers subscribe to the idea that this enhances fear. Not only does nobody label the monster, but we never learn where it came from, what default shape it has if any, why it hunts these people (not for food), or even how anyone picked up on its pattern. My mind went further in many ways. Does the tagging intercourse have to be coitus? Does it have to be remotely consensual? What happens with three-ways? And hypothetically, if the monster killed everyone in the sex chain, what would it do afterward?
Given the rarity of bloodshed, I think the R rating is primarily for nudity. None of the sex scenes are graphic, but the monster often appears in a state of undress, male or female.
The flick is not explicitly set in the past but feels like it wouldn't be out of place in the '80s, in both trappings and overall style. I noticed only one 21st-century device, and it has no bearing on the plot. Hey, the premise is such that cellphones would make little difference for security.
While plenty of horrors prioritize sexually active young adults for victimization, this one is hardly a morality play, given the "solution." It does have some value in getting us to think about what we might do in the characters' shoes. I like to think I'd just keep moving between two far-apart bases, but that might not be feasible on a student's wages. To Jay's credit, she never considers sex without a fair warning.
My main feeling as a viewer was pity. Nevertheless, it wasn't just jump scares that got me on edge from time to time. Sometimes I gripped my armrests in anticipation.
A modern classic? Maybe to bigger horror fans. To me, it's an adequate use of 100 minutes.
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