i just watched the 2013 psych horror movie Coherence and im gonna give my thoughts. ill summarize then ill put spoilers under the cut
theres this dinner party happening on the night of a comet. its a group of uhhhh like 8 people, all good friends before this. the cinematography is very low-key, with moving, unfocused shots and jump cuts, overlapping and unclear dialogue, and shifting point of view; all of which give the effect that you are there in the room, in the party.
a lot of the movie is centered around the social circle. the dinner party setting is very well portrayed, the actors genuinely selling the premise. after the first couple scenes you feel kike you know them all well. as the plot develops into the horror elements, that begins to change.
if youre at all interested, go watch it free on tubi it's like an hour and a half long and very narratively chewy
its slowly revealed that, due to the comet, alternate realities are being brought closer together, leading to convergence. this part of the movie is rather shaky, this point isnt sold well, but overlooking it is fairly easy, and the character acting helps smooth that over a little bit. watching the social circle react to this, and watching the mood in the room shift is one of the most interesting parts of the movie. i honestly think that each of the actors are method acting and werent told of whats gonna happen, its that well done.
as the night goes on, we learn more about each of the characters, completely changing our preconceived notions of them generated from the exposition. likewise, the characters begin learning about each other more as well. secrets from the past come up, causing ruptures in the group, and each character shows how they react to pressure. the viewer and the characters both start to learn that these people are not who we thought they were.
this point is further emphasized when the different versions of themselves begin to appear. much time is spent speculating about what the other versions of themselves are thinking about, what their plans are, what theyre hiding. despite being literally them, theyre treated as an alien force, to be feared and avoided. this obviously symbolizes the divisions starting to form in the group in the face of this unknowable event, but more importantly it shows one key theme: they dont truly know the people around them, nor do they know themselves.
when doubt is cast upon the character's origin, whether they are really from the correct reality, hostility and fear are quick to follow. interestingly though, i found myself seeing them differently as well. specifically, when emily embraces her husband as he reassures her that their marriage is okay, before they both realize theyre from different worlds, a chill went down my spine as this moment of comfort and reassurance was flipped on its head. because, how strong can such a reassurance be when the person making it is fundamentally unknowable, fundamentally different, fundamentally other? this experience exemplifies how, even in their group of people from the same reality, they are each alone.
but even this group is shatterable. across the film, some people have unknowingly been swapped. the people around them, whom they are basing their entire sense of place, their entire idea of "correct" reality, have already been filled with impostors. this fractures the group completely. emily has already having doubts about her life, her happiness, her husband, and herself. mike tells her (loosely quoting) weve been worried about the darkest versions of ourselves that are out their. maybe we are the darkest versions. this line wraps the movie up into a single phrase that says so much. we dont know ourselves. we dont know those around us. we are darker than we think we are. our lives arent what the seem. the people around us arent who they seem.
emily takes this to heart. she goes to look for her original life, but there are just too many false ones. in her search she finds a life where maybe everything looks perfect, where the group is together again and nothing bad had ever happened. the only problem is, another version of her is already there. so she knocks her out and takes her place, but before she can properly silence the other version of her she passes out. she wakes up on the couch the next morning in that reality. coming to, she has a few moments before she is caught red-handed by the other version of her.
her fatal flaw, finally, is being confronted with a problem and trying to force her way to her own solution. narratively, the problem is her failing relationship, her shattered circle, and the knowledge that no one is really who she thinks they are. to solve this, she forces her way back into a reality she should not be in, one that looks perfect from the outside, in the process destroying both her life and the life the other emily is living. thematically, her problem is that under examination or stress, nothing is perfect, nothing is pure. and her solution is to avoid the examination or stress instead of confronting reality. this causes her downfall: instead becoming the monster and destroying the lives she enters.
