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Okay,
I love that this movie comes in hot with a cold open.
Who is she?
What time is this?
Who is she speaking to?
Is this in the future?
Is this in the past?
I do hope that you know the answer to that because I have seen this movie before.
And while I don't plan on throwing spoilers
around, I am going to speak about it freely.
So who is she talking to?
And who am I, the person talking to you?
I'm Lindsay Travis.
I write about movies.
And we're going to be watching this movie together.
A movie of which I am incredibly fond.
Attachment.
So let's dive into this.
Let's enjoy.
I love that we start with a classic meet-cute.
Like is this a horror movie?
Is this a rom-com?
Is it genre-bending?
Yes.
Yes it is.
I have no idea what you're saying or what's going on here.
Oh, um, oh sorry.
I was just, um, I was just saying that I'm sorry and I'm late for this work thing and
I don't know where it is so I'm a bit late.
Oh!
Does it have to do with that?
Is Russ looking good with children?
Yeah, that's it.
I'm, um, I'm sorry.
Sorry.
I like that this movie really immediately wants to hit us over the head with the
fact that one of them is Jewish and one of them is a shiksa, is a non-Jew.
What's the word?
But she literally is dressed as a Christmas elf talking to children about
Christmas while the other has her dark curly hair reading about, ooh, Jewish art.
Feels like the, um, the Futurama.
How Santa has his bazooka.
Sure.
Nice Christmas.
But we were also really tired, so first we're going
to take a break, so we'll do that in a moment.
I was, I was going to give you this, but now I see you're some big important
celebrity, I'm afraid I'm just going to have to keep it.
Yeah.
You'll have to get your own.
But I don't sell them anymore.
It's very old, like very old.
Oh, well that only makes it all the more valuable.
Right.
There you go.
Sorry about the mixer.
No, no, I was the one who... Please don't go.
She's cold.
Just, um, sorry, I was, uh, yeah, I was just wondering
if maybe you, uh, if you want to, like, go for a drink.
And then, you know, maybe you can have my autograph if you want.
I don't understand.
Surely you could just give me your autograph here.
We don't have to go... Oh, the searing, crackling, dry wit.
I'm just taking this in.
Oh, sorry.
Yeah, okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, like right now.
I heard on a writing class once that your, like, big opener, although I guess we have
a cold open here, but your big opener should actually
just be your whole story, um, in a quick opening scene.
And I think this really reflects that.
These are two people that have cultural differences and they're mixing them up and
falling in love on top of them, which I think is pretty fun.
I also love that they go straight back to her house.
This is different food.
Uh, I mean, what do you like?
Um... Strawberry?
And I decided I wanted to do some fieldwork abroad for my thesis.
And I'd never actually been to Denmark, which
is really weird because my mom is Danish.
So I came here, did a bit of research, and I go home in a couple of days.
That's why I'm here.
Am I talking too much?
No, it's... it's nice hearing you talk.
They're so pretty.
Uh, no, it was like, uh, like a Christmas TV show.
So you don't really act anymore?
No, not really, no.
Only like that kind of stuff.
Like the, um, like, elf stuff.
So what do you do for your rent?
Oh, nothing actually.
Uh, it's my mom's place.
You live with your mom too?
What?
No.
No, no, no.
She's... she's dead.
Oh, oh my god.
I'm... Another classic uncomfortable misunderstanding.
And she got really sick, then she died, and now it's my place, which is...
nice.
Wait, you live with your mom?
Oh, uh, who, me?
No.
Yeah, back in London.
And, like, in separate flats, just in the same house.
It's not weird.
Right, it doesn't sound weird at all, actually.
I know that something's not weird when somebody uncomfortably says, it's not weird.
You look like an elf Princess.
I don't have too much responsibility for anything.
It's your goodbye present.
This is yours forever.
Take it, please.
No.
I can't.
This movie wastes no time, and this couple wastes no time.
You know what I mean?
We get right into the spooky mom stuff.
And they get right into the... dating stuff.
I love that her phone is at 95% after a whole day there.
That's great.
That's good stuff.
Okay, talk amongst yourselves, but you're on a first date, first hookup,
one night stand, whatever your flavor is, and this happens.
Like, what do you do?
Like,
I think I'm bouncing.
I don't know.
Also, do you have a mirror in your bedroom?
Lots of questions that I know you can't answer,
but do you have a mirror in your bedroom?
I know they say that mirrors in your bedroom can sort of, like...
cause spirits to come through.
I don't know.
I do have a mirror in my bedroom, but I do think about it all the time.
Oh no, did I do something embarrassing?
Like pee or eat something weird?
No, no, just stood there.
She's like enamored by it.
What's that smell?
It smells like Schick's Appeal.
I can't eat that.
Oof.
Okay.
No, it's fine.
Sorry, I didn't realize.
You're like, I'm really sorry.
No, I'm not.
It's fine.
And I'm not.
It's just something.
Okay.
If you haven't guzzled as much Seinfeld as I have, Schick's Appeal is this appeal of.
Schicksal women.
Oh, wow.
Okay.
I guess that's redundant.
Schicksals are women.
But the appeal of a non-Jewish person, which I feel
like this movie really plays with and capitalizes on.
She's making bacon.
Right.
Good.
And that makes Leia, like, hot.
What?
Wait.
For Maya.
First, can you just bring a piece of that over here?
This?
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
That's like the image.
A blonde woman holding a piece of bacon is the ultimate Schicksal appeal.
Cola.
That's gross.
That just sounds like you coughed and it's gone wrong.
You know what?
I think you're really jealous that I know Danish and you don't know any Danish.
Sure.
Oh.
Uh, this is Hellskill.
No.
That's it.
It's very beautiful, Nicolás.
Yeah, it's actually, um, my mom gave it to me when I was a kid.
Yeah, it's an amulet Jewish superstition thing.
It's supposed to protect me from disease, apparently.
We're off to the races here with the amulet.
Amulets play a huge part in this movie.
They come up a lot.
Speaking of.
Historically, they take a lot of forms.
Speaking of.
They typically have writing on them, which that one does.
We get a better close up of it later.
Um, yeah, the idea is that they protect you against harm.
So again, they come up a lot throughout.
Have everything?
Yep.
Good.
Okay.
All right.
Okay.
Bye.
Yeah, bye.
These two, like, really go a hundred percent.
And, like, good for them.
You know, when you know, you know.
Okay.
I don't know if I'd be more embarrassed to be the person who had, like, a late night.
horror seizure, or if I was the person who was
caught with my face in the pillow grinning.
I didn't go.
I got down there and I couldn't.
I just didn't.
I didn't want to go.
So.
I didn't go.
I buy it.
This is a good thing, right?
This is a good thing?
Me staying?
Is it?
Are we happy about this?
Or, oh god.
I'm just, yeah, that was crazy.
I'm just kidding.
I buy it.
They're gonna smell even more bacon together.
I'm just kidding.
Yes.
You're beautiful now.
Oh, for heaven's sake.
Open up your flower.
That's great.
That's your favourite song.
In Danish it's very romantic.
I'll find something else.
OK.
You want to get that?
Hmm?
The phone?
She loses time, which is cool.
I think that like a lot of possession movies and then of course possession often
stands in for dissociative identity disorder.
And people talk about losing time.
It's like they lost their body to someone else and they lost time.
So it's a really cool way of just cutting from one to the other.
I think it's cool.
Hmm.
Did she lose the time or did we, you know?
I think it's a really cool way of portraying that.
I don't know.
OK.
I'll make some more coffee.
What?
Hey.
Leia?
Leia!
OK.
Leia?
Leia!
Wake up.
What's up!
Again, the thing that comes up a lot in possession stories, um, 7 AM?
Jewish and otherwise, and I say otherwise because I think I've seen a lot of
Christian and Catholic possession stories and there are a lot of things that those
stories have in common and of course seizures is one of them.
So there's a lot of conversation like were we, or not we,
but were the ancient people, um, weird, it's been a really...
Misidentifying these things, um...
It was either that or God telling me that I'm not allowed to stay anymore.
I'm sure that's what my mom thinks.
I'm calling it a possession when it's actually not a possession.
I got distracted by this beautiful dialogue.
Um, and so this, this plays with that too.
And I think we see that a lot in a lot of really cool possession stories.
If you're watching Evil or even The Exorcism
of Emily Rose, those things get mixed up a lot.
Um, what's the truth?
I won't comment, but it makes for interesting film fodder.
Okay, we're not in Kansas anymore.
We got big hats.
We got, quote, ultra-Orthodox Jews.
This is it.
Where are we now?
It's lovely.
Oh, mom.
Poor thing.
Hi.
Oh, Mindy, Jessica.
Um, I'm fine.
Nonsense.
Oh, there it is.
Mom.
Come.
Mom.
That's, no, don't.
That's actually making it harder to get.
This is Maya.
Hey.
Hannah.
Nice to meet you.
My Hebrew name is Hannah, but, um, in Hebrew, Hannah is Hannah.
So people always call me Hannah.
I spent like a significant amount of my
childhood being like, it's Hannah, not Chana.
So I don't know if I'm like, oh, I'm just like her.
We have the same name or not.
I guess it depends who you ask.
And on Shabbos.
And on Shabbos in a cab.
I'm literally on crutches and we got out of mine away.
Well, someone could still see you.
Who cares?
Don't say God cares.
The neighbors care.
I care.
So you care that the neighbors care.
I'm sorry.
I didn't know that.
Oh, no one cares about you.
Mom.
That's not, you know what I meant.
You're a Goy.
You're not Jewish, so you can do what you want.
It's true.
Whereas Leah here.
They're in ultra orthodox communities.
Yeah.
It's like, oh, you're a Goy.
You can do what you want.
I don't care.
But on Shabbos, you're not supposed to use.
Electricity.
You're supposed to walk, not drive a car.
That's the point.
She's being like, you should not have been seen in a cab.
But you Blondie, you can do whatever you want.
Don't need to lie down.
Just stop.
Don't yell at me.
Yeah, you know what?
You.
You're right.
I'm knackered.
Why don't you just leave us for a bit?
Yeah.
And I'll rest.
OK.
All right.
Yes.
Just don't nap too long or you won't be able to sleep.
Thanks, mom.
I'll bring up dinner later.
So a lot of this works by letting us see this all through Maya's eyes, right?
So many things that seem really normal to me would seem really weird to a quote.
I don't know if it's about an outsider or a non-Jewish
person, which I think this movie explains really, really well.
She finds a book, potentially a sedour.
I'm not sure, actually.
Then she finds an incantation bowl upside down, which I don't know.
I was trying to see what we're getting from this image.
But an incantation bowl, oh, god.
There are pottery dishes that you paint with incantation bowls.
Incantations, incantation bowl.
And the idea is that you place them upside down.
The idea is that they capture a demon.
So they actually found them buried under ancient doorways.
And in Mesopotamia and Syria, as I understand it.
And they're usually individualized, usually make them for a person or an instance.
You're for sure.
Didn't you say that?
OK.
She's like, I made it.
Which makes sense.
She would have made an individualized one.
Or pants.
Like, oh man,.
So she's saying that prayer over the wine, because it is Shabbos.
And you would do a prayer over wine and over bread.
So Leah tells me that you have lived here for almost 30 years?
Mom.
What?
No.
I'm just saying that that's a long time.
I was just wondering if you ever miss Denmark.
OK.
I'm actually looking over my encyclopedia that I used to prep is sitting open.
I really hope I'm not making the same mistake that our good friend Maya did.
No, no, I'm sorry.
I don't think I do.
How does it go?
Oh, um...
Sjædlig flammer.
Angsten er en isblomst i ditt sinn.
Tranna really knows how to make you uncomfortable.
Sjædlig flammer svimler med ditt sinn.
Inni...
Gå en lille muskel... No, I don't think I know that one.
Well, you know, I think I'm getting pretty good at it, actually.
Vå mann, gos, gang, muskel, level.
Okay, that's terrible.
Slash hook.
Sorry, I just... She's like, sorry, I need to close this book.
There's an old Jewish superstition.
Can't leave a book open or like a demon might read
it and learn from it and use the knowledge for evil.
Cool.
Shavua tov, love.
Shavua tov.
So shavua tov is what you would say at the end of Shabbos.
Basically, have a good week.
I'm actually not sure what it's supposed to be.
She says it's on Shabbos and then it's the next night.
So I'm wondering if that was just dinner.
Because she had a habdalah candle, that braided
candle, which is usually light at the end of Shabbos.
So I think maybe it's the end of Shabbos.
Which is why she says, have a good week.
Shavua tov.
Thank you.
Also this amethyst, I was really curious.
I actually looked it up because I've never heard
of an amethyst being like a specific Jewish amulet.
And I couldn't find anything.
So I don't know.
I'm not sure specifically.
Is she like, is she okay with this?
She's gonna love you.
Just give it some time.
Okay.
All right.
But I mean, she has met your girlfriends in the past, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, she knew them.
Yeah, all my girlfriends that I've had.
I'll do it.
I like that conversation too, because again, just like
this movie kind of mixes up a few different things.
It's all about sort of misconceptions about what's happening in front of them.
And I like the idea that Maya is kind of like, Leia,
she's cool with the fact that you're dating women, right?
In this Orthodox community.
But it's like, oh, maybe it's that you're not Jewish.
But then she met my dad and she came here and she just couldn't fit in.
You know, it's not the kind of community you can just join.
And yet my dad still insisted on staying here.
It's true.
Different people will tell you about Judaism
or certain parts of it being a closed religion.
I think it kind of broke something in her.
Even after he left us, even after all this time, she still keeps trying to fit in.
And there are some people who even humor her.
Like my uncle and some of his friends.
You know, she'll go to their shops and they'll chat
Yiddish with her and make her feel kind of sort of welcome.
I couldn't really figure out if this was supposed
to be Hasidic or Orthodox or ultra Orthodox.
Which Hasidic could be ultra Orthodox in the taxonomy community.
Hasidic people typically are the ones who speak Yiddish.
Or you could just say Ashkenazi speak Yiddish.
So Eastern European Jews tend to be there.
They're the ones who speak Yiddish.
I'm not sure.
It was one of the clues I tried to use to figure it out.
I don't 100% know.
But I don't think it really matters.
I think the movie plays with it well either way.
So...
Are you still okay with this?
Even though you've met my wacky mom?
Yes.
It's pretty.
You could do a lot worse.
With amulets of protection.
It's like so tempting to just shout boo into the microphone.
But I won't do that.
I'll spare you all that.
I don't know the implication of the candle here.
Who's supposed to lit it.
I want to say that it's supposed to be that Hannah came and lit it.
I'm not 100% sure.
But...
I absolutely would be spooked if I woke up and saw a candle lit.
So...
I don't know.
I think any Jews watching this might have cringed at that.
So candles have a lot of meaning in Judaism.
You see them a lot.
You see them on Shabbos.
You see them on Hanukkah.
You see them for Yirtzeit when you light them for someone dead.
And you're not supposed to blow them out.
And they're also superstitions built around.
You know if you light a candle and it goes out or gets blown out.
That means that that candle is representing a person's soul.
And they're dying.
Like you blew it out.
So they would die.
But I think it's not something that a lot of people know.
I actually have a friend who had a Yirtzeit candle lit.
So you light it sort of to either annually or on certain holidays.
For someone close who's passed.
And it was like left in the sink safely.
And my friend had another one of our mutual friends over.
And he like blew it out on his way out.
And was like, don't worry.
I blew your candle for you.
And it was like... So this reminded me of that.
Doing some exercises to help with the knee.
Mum, you can't budge in like that.
I came to give you your massage.
Yeah, but you've got to knock.
Knock.
Mum, now's not a good time.
Yes.
No liar.
Now's the time that I want my mother to give me a massage.
No disturbances or distractions.
Mm-hmm.
So maybe you should just go for a little walk.
Yes, of course.
No, no, no.
I couldn't stay.
She's good.
Lie down.
What a nightmare.
Ugh, a Hamishah bakery.
That's what's up.
Look at those challahs.
Are you kidding me?
I recently moved to a neighborhood that is
more Jewish and has a Hasidic community nearby.
And let me tell you, the amount of challah, babka, everything.
Just constantly.
Because I got like way too excited.
I had to like gear down after a bit.
Because I did not eat an entire babka a day.
Yeah.
No kidding.
But then, didn't I?
Yes, what do you want?
Mmm, the warmth.
Yes.
Hi.
Sorry, I was just wondering if you have any books on like... Hi.
I was just wondering if you have any books on like...
How to do like.
Just, um... Like Jewish stuff?
Yeah.
Again,
I don't know if that's true.
I couldn't find anything to suggest that, but it is kind of an easy note.
Okay.
So, welcome, welcome to the area.
I'm afraid I have no such books you're asking for.
My selection caters to a slightly more, let's say, advanced readership.
Right, of course, yeah.
But, I mean, do feel free to visit any time if
there's anything else I can ever help you with.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Okay, let me see you out.
Okay.
Bye.
Bye-bye.
Hi.
Now, there you are.
It's not good for Lea to be alone, and I actually have other things I need to do.
Yeah, yeah, of course.
Here, love.
That's a chicken soup.
How was your massage?
Some matzo ball soup, presumably.
Some Jewish penicillin.
It'll heal anything.
It'll grow back a limb.
Yes, you did.
That soup smells really good.
Oh, here, try some.
Sorry, this soup is for Lea.
Oh, sure.
Huh?
No, Maya, just try some.
It's fine.
No, this soup is for you.
You're the one who needs it.
You're the one who's sick.
I'm not sick, Mom.
Can we get this later?
But this is such an interesting subversion.
This whole movie is a beautiful subversion of the Jewish
mother trope, that she seems so overbearing and intense.
This guilt, part of that stereotype of the
overbearing Jewish mother is that they bring on guilt.
Like, ugh, fine, I might as well just die.
Caring is weird.
Stop, okay?
Well, if me caring is so weird, you know what?
Let me take this soup away from you so you won't be bothered by your weird mother.
Fine.
Was that somehow my fault?
Oh, you brought wine.
Maybe this is a love letter to Jewish mothers.
All of the things that seem overbearing and intense are really just protection.
I'm so immensely charmed by how intense Maya is about
just fitting into this life and being part of Leia's life.
Sorry about the soup.
The incident with the soup.
Good soup.
I love a shot of someone's back in the dark.
It's always, you just assume.
I don't even think it's like cliche or a trope.
I think it's just like a strong move.
It's scary.
What's behind her?
Who's watching her?
I don't know.
Things like this, um, make me wonder.
Things like this.
Things like this and this movie specifically make me wonder
if that's why Christian horror is so effective for me.
Because things that were maybe like normal ritual stuff or things for protection,
I find so spooky because I don't get it.
As we're like this, I'm like, oh yeah, a lit candle.
Overnight.
Like, that's not weird or creepy.
Blowing it out is quite jarring.
You sure you don't want me to come?
No, mom's gonna take me.
It's just the doctor.
This place really isn't set up for someone on crutches.
What is it?
Oh, find it!
Where?
I like the implication that she very quickly remade that bowl.
So she finds salt.
She smells that.
That's pretty brave.
Like, at some point, are you like, is this rat poison?
This is another amulet.
Protects the children.
So Lev's gonna explain it and I have to sort of resist being redundant, but.
..
Shemot.
The names of God.
He talks about them being the Shemot, the names of God.
Again, scrolls are other amulets used for protection.
Kabbalah.
Yeah, sure, like the Madonna thing, right?
Yeah, the Madonna thing.
Okay.
You know, Kabbalah is Jewish mysticism.
Kabbalists believe that the names of God can wield enormous
power, unlocking the secrets of the universe, warding off evil.
Come, let me show you something.
So yeah, Lev beat me to it, but much like in Possession Stories, which are gonna
come up later, the names of something can wield power.
So the Shemot, the names of God, can wield a lot of power.
So that book's not real, but if you actually look at
the title, it's referring to, quote, the other side.
And the author, Simon Lansky, I read an interview
that the filmmakers added that as a reference to s.
Ansky, who wrote the original play about the Dybbuk.
Here, have a look.
It's not a real book, but I think he's kind of just created a fake book where he
talks about the sort of spooky elements of Jewish mysticism.
That's the Dybbuk.
It's the tortured soul of someone who died.
Just like a ghost.
No.
No, it's not like a ghost.
It's a Dybbuk.
It's not like a ghost at all.
The Dybbuks possess the body of the living.
The only way to expel them or to exorcise them is
by finding out who they are and what they want.
Like a ghost.
So that'll sound familiar.
Again, Lev does a lot of the explaining for me.
Oh, what about this one?
But very similar to sort of what you've seen.
In other possession stories, you kind of want to find
out the demon's name and what they want to rid them.
She's a very complicated figure.
Some say she's good, some say she's bad.
See, sorcery, black magic.
It's all very forbidden by the Talmud.
Whoever practices it is considered dangerous and sacrilegious.
What's this?
Oh, speaking of black magic, that is a very dangerous ritual.
That would also have to wait for...
There's so much there, it's like I'm almost tempted to pause it and go through
everything when he talks about the witch of Endor, the woman of Endor.
People are divided.
I mean, the Hasidic people follow Jewish mystics, so they tend to be okay with
things like amulets, anything that's not really used for evil.
Amulets are usually used to bring healing, to bring
protection, which isn't considered witchcraft.
But then there's sort of the idea that...
The Hasidic care for amulets and those sorts of rituals, and this is a quote from
a book I read, they may have dampened the enthusiasm in the Orthodox community
because of their distaste for all things Hasidic.
So there is disagreement between Orthodox and
Hasidic people with respect to these sorts of things.
So it's really interesting.
I guess that's what he's sort of tapping into,
and he's acting like these are sort of taboo.
But mysticism and witchcraft, well, they're not specifically distinguished,
or maybe they are, sort of, I guess, depending
on what you read and sort of who you ask.
But there's a bit of a difference there.
Not everything that is from Jewish mysticism or Kabbalah is considered witchcraft.
That's kind of the idea there.
I wanted to apologize for earlier.
I was a bit abrupt, and I'm sorry for that.
See, what we were discussing used to be a very rich part of Jewish mysticism,
but nowadays it's frowned upon, and I can't be seen discussing these things.
in public.
And then you also forgot this.
Now, you should put it back where you found it.
Okay?
So, put it back.
Thank you.
Oh, would you like a cup of tea here?
Do you want to stay for dinner or something?
I would love a cup of tea.
I'm sure Lev has plans.
Mum's here.
I'm just going to go lock myself up.
I'm going to go to the bathroom.
Yeah, so it turns out that I've been to Lev's shop.
Oh, that's awful.
That's nice.
She doesn't know.
But she thought she knew.
You can't keep it to yourself.
Oh, that's very kind of you to ask, but there's really nothing to worry about.
This reminds me a lot of some of the scenes in.
Inglourious Basterds, where people are speaking different
languages, and there's translators and things like that.
So it's a really interesting technique to sort of have.
It's almost like dramatic irony.
Like, we know what they're saying because of the
subtitles, but they're all speaking different languages.
So everybody can speak in front of each other.
I almost forgot.
Yeah.
Bamba!
For my poor and injured niece.
Yeah, just try them.
They're good.
Oh, yeah.
They're like peanut butter.
Bamba rules, or Bamba's rule.
They're really popular Jewish.
I think they're created in Israel.
But they're a really popular Jewish snack.
They're like...
Imagine Cheetos or Cheezys, depending where you're from.
Cheetos, the puffed kind, but peanut butter.
And I'm pretty sure they're made out of corn, peanut butter, and oil to puff them up.
Something like that.
Very, very simple.
They're so good.
And there's actually apparently a stat.
Don't quote me on this.
Look this up yourself.
Where it's like, Israeli children are less likely to have
peanut allergies because they eat Bamba at such a young age.
They've had peanuts at such a young age.
But again, I'm not a scientist.
I'm an allergist.
I don't know this for sure.
But something like that.
That I hear a lot.
And Bamba are so good.
Oh!
Reiner?
Reiner's had a few.
How embarrassing.
Rana, her wig's off.
It's there.
It's funny.
It was actually the first time I saw a lie.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Thank you.
Mia's presumptuous.
Of course she doesn't want you in there.
I was thinking, maybe you'd like to show me around tomorrow?
Maybe.
And also if you can make it and stop going you're on your way.
Thanks!
Thank you!
You're welcome.
Thank you so much.
Bye!
Bye.
Okay, those are ruggala, which if you've never had them, go out and get some.
Find a local Hamisha bakery and get those for yourself.
They're delicious.
He's like looking her up and down like...
Who's this blondie you got with you?
It's fine.
Just wrap it extra carefully, please.
Thank you.
Yeah, Maya, take a couple.
Don't miss out.
It's one thing you'll notice in Jewish neighborhoods generally.
For things to be kosher, there has to be separation of dairy and meat.
There's other rules as well, but that's one of the big ones.
So you're not going to see like a butcher that also has to be kosher.
Shavuot has like a croissant, because one of
the things is dairy, one of the things is meat.
So you see like dairy restaurants, quote unquote, are places that have like
bagels with cream cheese and all those sorts of things.
Then of course the butcher will be very separate.
It's actually, as I'm recording this, Shavuot,
where you're supposed to eat lots of dairy desserts.
So my local dairy restaurants are probably having a lovely day.
And then she comes back from her adventure into the Orthodox community.
To her Jewish GF, watching her Christmas story.
Oh no.
Okay, okay, I've actually watched like eight
episodes by now, and you're so good at it.
Do you want to watch an episode with me?
No.
Well, you know, for what it's worth, I actually find seeing you on screen quite hot.
It's that Schicks appeal, man.
Seeing her in her Christmas hat.
That gets you going.
Christmas hat, elf hat, Santa hat.
Elf hat.
Their amulets clanging together.
What was that?
Which one?
The PJs.
Oh, you're right.
Are you alright?
Yeah, yeah, that's great.
This movie does a lot of subverting, but it's actually also an interesting
subversion of the whole, like, husband and wife thing, where it's always
the wife being like, I heard something, and the husband's like, oh honey,
you're so hysterical.
Which we see a lot in these, like, haunted house, kind of, haunting movies.
It's another interesting subversion.
A little confusion.
Babe?
Sorry, sorry, sorry.
I just heard something.
I got distracted, so...
Sorry.
What is that?
It's the fucking bed, Maya!
It creaks sometimes.
Sorry, I just, I...
I thought someone was in here.
You thought someone was in here?
Where would they be?
Like, under the bed?
I don't know, just a few nights ago I heard these, like...
footsteps.
Why do you don't hear it?
You probably just need some sleep or something.
I'm gonna go pee.
Speaking of sleep, could we maybe just...
not light that candle tonight?
What candle?
What do you think?
Is it supposed to be accepted that Hannah lit it?
I know I already asked that, but...
I think so.
But then, I don't think it's Hannah's footsteps.
I don't think anyone's that sneaky.
I don't know.
Or maybe it's like the demon...
being like, I'm still... around.
I don't know.
Is it really obvious?
Do you feel like a ghost being like, Lindsay, it's very obviously this.
How do you not know that?
But you can't tell me because I can't hear you?
I was just thinking it's really weird...
that we hardly know each other.
You know, like...
you weren't even supposed to be here.
I guess, um...
I just wanted to thank you.
Because...
I've never been in...
anything...
like this before.
Like this...
serious.
And...
I feel like I might not be very good at it all the time.
Classic.
Young Jewish self-loathing.
But you were still here.
So...
Thank you.
And...
You know, like maybe...
when my legs got better...
we can think about going somewhere, like...
the two of us will try something new.
Absolutely not.
Wake up.
Please.
Wake up.
You have to wake up now.
Miss Maya.
That's a love guy.
Oh hi.
Sorry.
They just left for the physiotherapist.
No, it's okay.
It's a good thing I came to see you.
I thought you might need a little something to read.
Can I come in?
How are you getting along with my sister?
A little nosy, Lev.
I mean, she can be a little... complicated to be around.
They're speaking the same language, but they're speaking in code.
Actually, I think she absolutely hates me.
No, come on.
Yes, I think she does.
She certainly doesn't hate you for the reasons you might think she hates you.
What do you mean?
Well, I mean, I know some friendships are close.
But very few friendships are so close... We're just two gals being friends.
Oh, no.
No, no, no.
Being buddies.
Listen, I don't... Being roommates.
Really, I mean, I could care.
Perhaps I should care.
But I really don't care.
Wow, he's progressive.
And I can promise you neither does Hannah.
You see, she is...
She's a very troubled woman.
And she's... She's in a lot of pain.
She's in more pain than you could ever imagine.
I wish I could help her.
But I can't.
Neither can Leah, but...
While it might not seem like that, I think perhaps you might be able to help her.
I don't think I get it.
Just wait and you'll see.
What a cryptic morning.
Take her with you.
No, no, I won't take her with you.
You don't have to.
Get her with you.
It's not a problem.
I can do it.
Just do as I say.
Just help me.
I don't need help.
But... No, but...
See, here Masouza on the door, again.
Another amulet, one you've probably seen everywhere.
It's a scroll in a tube of metal, which a lot of amulets is pretty typical.
But Masouzas are something that you've definitely seen around.
I'm sorry.
I don't want to be sorry.
I shouldn't have called it a spade.
I shouldn't have made a funny face when we were talking about it.
I shouldn't have had that...
...cute sound.
Fuck.
The fart noise was my favorite part.
Sorry, Rana.
Sorry, I was just...
I was just a little too much.
The fart noise is what endeared her to her, and so she
was like, let me grab a couple of brewskis for you, gal.
Millennial experience.
Everybody else has a real job and a real family and a real life.
Except me.
I shouldn't have...
I shouldn't have taken care of her.
I shouldn't have stopped her in the morning.
I don't know, it's just like...
When it's not about her, or...
When it's not about her, I just don't know what to do with myself.
It's weird, isn't it?
You can have it that way.
Yes, you should take care of that.
I love someone so much that I give up everything for them.
That's kind of the knowing...
The knowing warning from a woman who apparently embraced her husband's very
orthodox version of their religion and changed who she is.
Where do you really end up?
Here.
For Leah.
It doesn't engage with it a lot.
Like, this movie doesn't engage with it a lot.
But it is really interesting to have her sort of say, I didn't choose this.
I sort of became this.
And now I stay here for Leah.
It's not talking about being lapsed or not wanting to be a
part of that community because ultimately it is protecting her.
Kind of an interesting way of engaging with that, I think.
Do you know Leah?
Yes.
No, no, no.
It's not...
It's just something we talked about.
We don't think it's the right thing to do.
Yes, honey.
It's not like that.
Hannah's like, absolutely not.
Where did you get this book?
At least it's closed.
Hannah, at least I left it closed.
You're supposed to do what I say.
The sound really carries in that little joint flat.
Okay, so this is probably my favorite part of the movie.
Where, again, we're back behind Maya's eyes.
Which we always kind of are.
And she's looking around and she sees things that are menacing.
But they're all very normal and explainable.
So it just seems menacing to an outsider.
So she's got her glasses of wine.
Looks like a spooky goblet.
Probably just a kiddish cup.
A regular cup you use for wine and ceremonies like, again, Shabbos.
This is a shadal or a wig.
Again, seems weird.
Why is she wearing a wig?
But a wig is something that married Jewish women wear.
It has something to do with the sort of power of hair and sexuality.
And so it's married women should only show their hair to their husband.
Not any other men.
So a lot of married or all-married Orthodox women, you'll
see, will be wearing wigs or a wrap around their hair.
Here we've got potions, I guess?
I don't really know.
Crystal stones.
It looks to be a ram's horn, which comes up again later.
And then another bowl filled with crystals.
Looks like she's making these incantation bowls.
With crystals and stones in them.
They're all really normal things.
I have a lot of these things around my house, too.
But if they were different to you, if you were Maya, you'd be thinking...
This chick's a little nutty.
A little wacky.
The black candle.
You can go.
You can kind of see.
Actually, I think we can get a better shot of it soon.
The map.
She comes back, her hair is wrapped.
She's making... I assume that it's her making the chicken soup again.
For Leah.
Yeah, because that's a chicken carcass.
Which again, really good way to get broth.
I don't need it, but really good way to get broth or stock, whatever.
But it looks massively spooky.
Looks like witchcraft.
She's got a cauldron with a carcass.
And her spooky potions.
And I think the implication here is that she's drugging the soup.
I don't know what she's chanting, to be honest.
There's a lot of precedent for chanting and incantations, as we know.
I love her doing witchcraft while hacking a dart and having a beer.
Are you kidding me?
If there's ever been a, like...
vibes, mood, goals, whatever, baloney...
It's that.
And yes, I always assumed that that sort of answer for the chicken soup.
Why she didn't want her to eat it.
Because she was trying to drug Leah.
So this here, this is also... We actually see it in Lev's book as well.
This is the sephiroth or sephiroth.
I don't know how to say it.
And she's using it as a map.
I don't know much about it.
But it's basically a map of numbers and spheres.
Which is essential to Kabbalah or Jewish mysticism.
And basically you can use it to wield power.
And it describes a flowchart.
Which can be applied to different situations.
So I think the implication is that she's using the
sephiroth as a guide, as a map for her apartment.
Oh yeah, I didn't make an assumption.
This movie hands it to us.
So it's the idea that the soup is potentially poisoned.
I don't know.
What the fuck is wrong with you?
Magic and poison chicken soup in Kabbalah?
I know how it sounds, okay?
But I'm telling you, she's coming in here at night and she's like lighting candles.
No one is coming in here.
Listen, I'm just... Just look...
Just look at this.
What?
What is that?
It's a drawing of your apartment.
This is your furniture.
And she's like arranging it in like a pattern.
Why are you showing me this?
I don't care.
I'm just saying that she's like...
She's like mentally ill.
I know!
Don't you think I fucking know that?
Why do you think I'm still here?
This is what I've been trying to tell you.
She's not well.
And she needs me.
I understand that she needs you.
You know, um...
Maybe this was a mistake.
I wonder what Leah sort of knows about either mysticism or orthodoxy or Judaism.
I mean, she kind of tends to be the...
She knows it, but not enough to think that her mom is being rational, per se.
It's like an interesting spectrum.
Right away.
She's like, you took off your amulet.
That's trouble.
Also, I was listening to your whole conversation.
.
I'm trying to figure it out.
I wish I could figure it out.
There are a few chants in this that I don't know what they are.
I wish I could get her a creepy massage with that lit candle while chanting.
Oh, I know it's coming and every time it's very um uh...
God.
Stephen King, biggest fan.
You know the one.
I like how.
they play the pronoun game.
She is very dangerous.
Hi.
Come in.
Misery.
That's the name.
It's very misery that she breaks her leg to keep her there.
Shabbat Shalom, Mamala.
This looks lovely.
So she does a really nice job.
She sits at the candles, although she lit them already.
Uh, the Kiddush cup.
The cloth.
She learned the brachas, the prayers.
Very beautiful.
Very sweet.
L'Chaim.
L'Chaim, you've heard before.
It means to life.
Two fresh starts.
Very popular Jewish cheers.
L'Chaim.
L 'Chaim.
Mmm, the chicken's really good.
Thank you, love.
Very good.
So, you know how I was getting all upset about my supervisor the other day?
Yes.
He actually sent me an email today.
Um, it was a lot better than what I thought.
Well, you know I had that really bad.
Oh that's good.
ak reading with him.
Yeah, but, um, he said the edits that I just sent through all my chapters were...
all pretty good.
I mean, the edits.
Edits.
That's a nightmare too.
That's not what I was talking about.
Talking to a professor about edits.
Yeah, that's a nightmare too.
One time I was training how to use EpiPens for campers as a camp counselor,
and they had these ones that just made the click so you could feel it, but then we
also use expired ones and like water bottles
and fruit and stuff so you could feel it.
And the trainer was trying to show us with what she thought was one of the fake ones
with no needle, but it was in the expired ones.
And so I watched her just be like, and then go like
this and put it in her leg and just shot herself up.
And just like, I will forever have the image of her face just changing from
smiley telling us what to do to just like pure
terror, just like forever etched in my memory.
And I think about that every time I see an EpiPen.
Are those peanuts?
This is quite the gambit.
Did you just put peanuts in her chicken?
What?
Mom, you could have killed her.
Why would I?
I need you to go.
There's another great moment in movie making, okay, because I think we often
associate different ways how we know people are lying, are they saying too
much, are they saying too little, are they over explaining, and those things
aren't really necessarily reliable, we kind of have these instincts about them.
The thing about story is, you have to read the first part of the story, right?
Not the second, and not five more to go and if you don't if you don't understand
it anyway, don't listen, I tweeted it out not five, but that's me in the second part.
Okay okay.
This scene is really cool.
Okay.
Because they have the opportunity to speak another language.
But Chana has to be like...
I cannot explain this.
How could you convince anyone?
Like, oh no, it was her, she poisoned herself!
It was a gambit!
You couldn't.
Chana's desperate.
I don't know how the peanuts got in the food.
Really, I...
I'm sure it was...
some kind of accident.
Don't you...
Maybe we should all just... Maybe we should all just calm down.
Let's not all flip out!
That's my Jerry Maguire impression.
Right?
Yes.
Let's all...
clear our heads.
And...
You were right.
She's lost it.
No, I'm sure she's just... She tried to fucking kill me.
Yeah.
Quite the escalation, if you ask me.
What are we gonna do?
I guess she needs help.
But...
I also think that it is not safe to stay here right now.
We can't just leave her here.
Maybe your uncle can look after her.
Honestly, when you think about this, from the perspective of Chana...
who, again, we really don't know what to make of her at this point...
This is really a woman who...
tried to endanger herself to make it look like Chana
did it in order to isolate Leia from her family.
Pretty red flag behavior.
We do get this confirmation, even though I think it was pretty...
pretty well laid out.
I do kind of like this confirmation.
Sorry.
Where should we go?
Please.
A little bit more info every time.
What are you making of this?
Crowns on the floor.
I'm thinking it's Leia the first time I saw this.
Which I guess is probably what you're supposed to think.
Did we go alone?
Classic inherited wealth.
Yeah, my dad never really uses this place.
It's nice.
Her parents just have empty homes.
Yeah.
We don't have to stay for long.
Yeah, we'll figure it out.
Yeah.
We'll figure it out.
Then we can move on.
Once your leg is better.
Which it is.
Really cool way to...
describe time.
Also kind of ends up being a bit of like a Munchausen's by proxy movie in a way.
Because you kind of think like, oh she wasn't healing the longer she was
at home and as soon as she left her leg healed real fast.
This clinking tea I think will forever, clinking your spoon
in your teacup will forever be associated with get out.
I think that's a fact.
I was low at spilling so it reminds me of like Pazuzu and Pissing and The Exorcist.
But it's just tea.
A lot less gross.
This cat.
This black cat.
I like that it seems like this happens a lot.
She's annoyed.
She's not like, oh no!
Are you okay?
She's like, oh great.
You're passed out in the grass again.
Hey.
What are you doing?
Alright.
Well.
I thought that I would try to make Osopoco tonight.
I've made a huge mistake.
You have to eat something right.
I ate.
The cat?
How's your leg?
Well, wonderful.
I mean, good for her.
My dog reversed sneeze like once the other night.
It woke me up and I didn't sleep for three more days.
This just gives me like full body chill.
Something about like aggressive hair brushing.
I mean, I know it's supposed to.
It's very The Ring.
I know there's a lot of hair in Japanese horror.
Okay, we have to go to the doctor, please.
Why?
My leg's fine.
I know it's fine, but I mean, just look at yourself.
Do I not look beautiful?
No, babe.
Yeah.
Yes.
Babe, you look great.
You always do.
I'm just really worried about this.
I mean, look.
Okay, I have to go meet someone.
Just stay.
Okay?
Just stay here.
Just try not to creepily brush out all of your hair and just vibe all BRB.
I love this outfit.
This is like really nice, like summer casual chic.
Lev's too, honestly.
It's a good look.
Thank you.
Of course.
But listen, I just don't understand.
So you live here in the forest?
No, no.
No.
We have a...
We have like a house or it's my dad's house or some house up here.
Yeah.
So why don't we meet there?
I mean, this is a very strange place to meet.
Yeah.
His little ray of that, if you know any guys like him, I'll say.
That's always me.
I love that.
I really want to talk to you first.
Okay.
So you told me that she's, she's sick.
I don't know.
Something is just wrong.
I tried everything.
I've tried to take her to a doctor.
I've tried to get her help.
But it's like, it's like she's, I don't know, just not there.
Maybe we should just go, go see her.
Promise me you wouldn't tell her.
Okay.
I saw what you did to her.
I'm so sorry.
I miss my arms, but there's something you need to know.
Hello?
Presumptuous.
Maybe it's a cultural thing, but I am not walking into someone's house.
Although I do.
I guess I would do anything for my lost pet.
I don't know, man.
At some point stay out of my house.
I'm too busy creepily brushing my hair, you know?
Did you eat the cat?
.
It's only a year old.
So it's like my little baby.
How far are you going?
Oh, no.
Well, anyway, I'll just leave this wire for you.
I'll see your cat.
She was seven when she started to get rashes.
And we thought it was epilepsy.
But the attacks became more intense.
And she...
She was like...
I was like, this movie has to explain itself a lot.
But I do think this is like a really nice short,
quick way to explain, like, I'm not a shitty mom.
I didn't just immediately assume superstition.
I tried.
I thought she was sick.
But then... She had a little girl on a visit.
A little girl who lived a little bit further down the street.
And I could hear that they were playing.
Until it suddenly became like... Did any of you ever see the movie Z or Zed?
There's a really shocking kids playing and one getting injured scene.
But like, ultimately it was lukewarm on the whole ordeal.
But that scene is so shocking.
I feel like this is reminiscent of that.
Maybe, also, Halloween M's.
But I don't know.
And we get it.
Wasn't Leia on the ground.
It was her friend.
It was a dybbuk.
A dybbuk.
It's a dead soul in a living host.
And this one, this particularly cruel and evil one has possessed Leia for many years.
That thing from the book.
Again, love does a lot of my job for me, but yeah.
I mean, we tried to exorcise him when she was just a child.
But he wouldn't tell us who he was or what he wanted.
And have you ever...
I don't know, have you ever, like, mentioned this to Leia?
No.
Which was a mistake.
I warned you.
We should have told her.
We should have told her... Her friends.
Her roommates.
Her buddies.
Okay, once again, we don't live in the forest, okay?
We have a house.
But with her and you so far away, it's hard for us to protect her.
And I think it's very important that we get to see her now, please.
If it's too late, then we might have to try to... No.
No, we're not doing that.
It's too late and there's enough of us here to perform this ritual.
No, we are not... Okay, I'll take you to her.
So Hannah knows that the exorcism failed the first time
because they couldn't get enough information from the demon.
It'll get there, but of course, exorcisms in Judaism are, quote,
similar to what you've seen in a lot of your Christian or Catholic, etc.
horror movies and possession movies.
So again, you know, you've heard that you need to know their names.
To get dominion over them.
Your name gives me power over you, demon.
That's my Lorraine Warren impression.
Pretty good.
Pretty good so far.
But yeah, so we know that it's a dybbuk now.
It is a different spirit that is living inside of Leia's body.
It literally translates to cleave or to cling.
And again, they're demons with unfinished business.
They tend to be malevolent.
Um...
Because the idea is that they are maybe avoiding
the afterlife to sort of avoid punishment.
Or the idea is that they're just lost souls.
It actually comes up.
There's a movie called Demon that's really great.
Where it may or may not be malevolent.
The idea is that they're sort of these lost souls with unfinished business.
And sort of to exorcise them, you want to almost cleanse the demon.
You almost want to help them finish their business.
Ooh!
That hair brushed out.
So scary.
So at this point, the movie really does become
every Possession movie that you've seen.
All of a sudden she looks possessed.
She behaves possessed.
And we kind of build up to the big finale.
But I'm fine with that.
I think there's been so many subversions thus far.
That I actually think it's nice to sort of go to the familiar finale.
I think it's a really good way of tying it to what you are familiar with.
Like we've subverted the Jewish mother.
We've got the whole who's the bad guy situation.
We've subverted the whole haunted house thing.
There's been a lot of that throughout.
It's queer.
It's Jewish.
It's different.
And now we're like, okay, here we go.
Possession story.
We've done all the different stuff.
Now let's get to this grand finale.
We've got this possessed chick.
Let's exorcise this demon.
You're so sad.
You're just...
aimless.
Your whole life's...
broken.
Broken.
Isn't it?
Really getting back into that millennial fear.
That she shared only with Hannah.
You're too old.
Stop it.
Better to break someone else's.
Bleh.
That's me when I have to roll over on my pillow at night.
Baaaah.
Maya?
Ooh.
The classic demon being like, help me.
It's me.
Maya?
Let me out.
I promise I won't attack you anymore, eat any more cats.
I love you.
No, I don't even care if it's your house or your home base.
I'm not visiting this, like, attic blanketsburg.
Where my humming-possessed girlfriend is taking up residence.
Like, when did she do this?
She marked that old lady.
Yeah.
I love you for ever.
Again, I tried to really figure out what he said.
I heard like a Chad at the end, but.
I don't know what he said that made her sort of freeze in place.
He seems to have some sort of... control or power with that chant.
Here we go!
The squad is here!
Bring in the Minion!
So in here we're learning all those amulets, all those rituals, everything
that she did was to keep her protected from the Dybbuk.
Let me get this little flashback to really drive that home.
The salt, the scrolls, all of it, they were protecting her... but now it's too late.
So remember when they're flipping through the book, we see the um...
ritual, the black magic ritual, that Lev's like, it's very dangerous.
And it is, and he's gonna explain a little bit more about it, but um...
There are different explanations on sort of how exorcisms are done, and one that I
found specifically was that there was a cabalist named Hayim Vital, who got
instructions from his teacher named Isaac Luria.
So this is what I found.
And basically it was similar to what we see here, this ritual, with the seven
black candles, the seven scrolls, the seven blasts into the ram's horns,
with curses that are proclaimed and incantations, and then the different
combinations of the shemot, the names of God,
pronounced, which is what they set up here.
So I don't know, I think that's probably where they got this from.
But of course the idea of the exorcism and that dangerous ritual that he mentions.
I believe comes from that.
After we had found a way to keep him on, and she had become herself again,
she was just...
happy.
She could not remember what had happened.
She was just...
a healer.
I had gotten my healer back.
If she had known... that...
if she had known that deep inside her there was this.
She would have liked her so much that she would rather Leia think that...
her mom was overbearing and mean, and awful, if
it meant that she kept her safe and protected.
We have to stop now.
This is our last resort.
What salt?
Salt.
You've seen salt in witchcraft.
But we have to prepare... And hocus pocus.
I've heard that the reason why spirits can't cross salt is because they have to
count all of the grains before they can cross, so it slows them down.
Is this... this black magic ritual?
See, there you go, that's the ritual.
We haven't really tried it before, so...
Now we'll start by creating this holy ring.
And we'll use this bowl to seal the ring.
So that's incantation bowl.
Just trapping the soul within the circle.
Now Leia is fully under the dybbuk's control.
So it makes sense.
So that if the dybbuk is in the circle, well then that's who the devourer of.
I think what you really want is a nervous person leading your exorcism being like,
let me just double check that in my book here.
I don't know anything about the soul devourer, I've never heard of that.
I couldn't find anything about that.
I think it's a film creation, but this black magic ritual is sort of seen elsewhere.
He appears to have a few men there.
Technically a Minion needs to be ten men.
I don't know if they just didn't have that many people or what.
Or if this is his version, maybe he's like, oh it's around seven.
I don't know.
But they definitely add a little flavor.
How many does he have behind him?
They definitely add a little flavor by virtue of saying,
we have to do this black magic ritual last resort.
Someone will die.
The dybbuk will either get killed by this old devourer or it'll be all of us.
But of course what he has to do, his first attempt at the last resort,
his second last resort I guess, is just the regular exorcism.
Finding out what the dybbuk wants.
Exercising them.
It's worth a shot.
They're rocking back and forth.
A lot of Orthodox people rock back and forth
when they dove in or pray at certain times.
And then they're blowing a ram's horn.
You might have heard of a shofar.
It's blown on Yom Kippur or Rosh Hashanah, which is Jewish New Year.
And the idea is that you're opening up the sky so that God can hear your prayers.
But there are other places where a ram's horn is important.
And again, in that ritual that I was mentioning that it
seems that they're using for this, you do blow a ram's horn.
Seven ram's horns, they say.
So I think that's just supposed to suggest that
it's like, oh I can't leave the circle where I burn?
But there's something about fingers as well in exorcisms of dybbuks.
I think this is just Leia being like, oh, okay.
Okay.
I wonder if we're just not seeing them all at once.
I'm thinking...
Mommy...
My favorite... Hold out your arm.
I said quiet!
You'd think being trapped for 20 years would be dull.
Not with you.
I got to watch you ruin your life.
This is some mommies with the maggots now, suck cucks in hell situation.
We got a taunting demon.
You'd want to die.
And Maya...
You and I...
We were going to have such fun.
Farewell.
Here you go.
Pity.
Some things they say in these exorcisms is that
the person leading must show strength of heart.
They can't show any fear.
So Lev has to be really careful to not show fear.
Which I think is like the don't think of a giant pink elephant thing.
Knowing you can't show fears.
They're very scary.
Tell me who you are and what you want.
I suppose I've forgotten.
You travel through so many bodies you start to lose track.
Sorry to disappoint you.
It's an interesting implication that this has been a dybbuk that has been out there.
They could be ancient.
So many bodies.
So much torment.
You know, definitely malevolent.
Are you not listening?
Tell me.
Don't get scared Lev!
And what you want.
What I want.
You want to know.
You want to know what I want.
He's like, we can't do it.
Let's do this ritual.
So the incantation bowl makes sense.
Of course used to capture demons.
I think the idea is that it's like, We're going to capture the soul.
Although they're summoning a devourer.
I don't know, the soul devourer?
Sure.
With a capital s, capital D.
But that sort of sets us up for this grand finale of self-sacrifice.
Again, pretty good gambit.
Whose gambit was better?
Maya poisoning herself with peanuts?
Or the Dybbuk being like, I'll bounce.
And you can let Leia die.
You can have her.
And I don't understand this to be from any precedent.
I think this is a really interesting way to create this interesting finale.
Look, she's glowing again.
And doesn't look, quote, pregnant.
In her, like, upper chest.
The little woman's like, how far along are you?
She had a bump in her, like, upper stomach.
Maya?
What's going on?
Maya, what...
No!
Don't move!
Don't move.
Just stay there.
What's going on?
Why can't I move?
Mama, you're scaring me.
What's happening?
I...
stopped it.
Stopped it!
Hey!
Mom?
So we're still praying.
I don't know exactly what they would be saying or doing.
But I do know in the Dead Sea Scrolls there were incantations for exorcisms and
I wonder if that's what they were maybe going on.
It was like the imagery of her stomping on the bowl.
It's reminiscent of the tradition of stepping on the glass when you get married.
Which I recently learned is a light bulb.
It's gonna be alright.
Come on, easily breakable glass.
Self-sacrifice I think is seen as a good deed in so many films.
A lot of self-sacrifice versus the vice of immortality.
I guess it's like Hannah gave everything to protect Leia.
Everything!
She gave up her whole life and joined this community and
became this sort of hated figure for her own daughter.
And kind of this is the ultimate part of that which is really sad.
Really sad, I say mechanically.
But this is sad.
Quiet and more angular shots.
All right, we're ready to go.
Oh, sorry.
Just leave it.
I didn't bring any of her stuff.
Just like you asked me to, but I uh...
It's sunny.
This whole movie's kind of sunlit horror.
Even the exorcism.
Like yeah, it's inside, but that's sunny the whole time.
Why?
Why would you put on such a silly piece of garb?
Wear your amulet.
I'm being avoidant.
Trying to.
You're not helping, so let's just laugh at my hilarious joke.
And uh, get going.
Avoidant or using humor to deal with death.
Have you met Jews?
That's what we do.
I found this.
I think this is when we get the first close-up of the amulet.
We see the writing.
Oh, she must have been so upset when she found it.
Oh, I hate that I treated her like such a nuisance.
It's not your fault, Leia.
I can't judge previous decisions based on current knowledge.
You know, I really think-Are we safe?
Of course she said.
Yeah.
Hey.
I promise.
Mm-hmm.
Okay, I saw it leave you.
So one thing I really wish this movie gave us, um, a sign of a successful Dybbuk
exorcism is that someone might have like a burnt finger or
toe because the idea is that you pull them out through there.
Yeah.
And then that's a sign that you were successful.
And so I kind of wish, you know, when she was holding her amulet or
something that she had like a burnt finger.
We've seen her toes a lot.
I wish we saw like a burnt toe.
Kind of the, I promise you it's out, but I guess this movie also leave us with
a little bit of doubt, but I really liked that.
I really would have liked that.
I think that would have been an interesting piece of lore.
Confiscating this.
It's not a toy.
Of course, here we are, I promise you are safe.
I thought leave you, I'm confident.
I feel good about it.
Your mom was doing weird stuff.
I'm not Jewish.
Oh, but look what I have.
I love that she carries the gear.
It's so special.
She's being like, I don't think the vacation is supposed to be that she's
becoming like her mother or anything like that.
I think it's as simple as she learned and she's bought
into this and she doesn't necessarily think it's scary.
It's not necessarily scary.
I love that movie.
I've seen it lots of times now.
It's always fun for me.
I think it's really special and magical.
I think it's so unique in its way of creating subversions, how it exploits our
lack of knowledge or our general lack of knowledge into Jewish mysticism,
into Jewish folklore, into Jewish magic.
And by doing so, it lets us think that there are things that are scary that maybe
aren't, and things that look weird that maybe aren't, and
it allows us to get this twist of what's Hannah up to.
And that's what makes it really special and really special to me.
I love Jewish horror.
I really hope that I added something to your watch.
Thank you for watching this movie with me and giving
me a reason to watch it again and again and again.
And for now, just enjoy this presumably Danish romantic track
that our good friend Maya might have sang to her lover Leah.
Okay, bye!
I love you forever.
How many times do you have to go?
You're so lost, what are you thinking about?
Your smile, your face Because you've hidden it from me You've got the gods with
you Oh, for heaven's sake Then close your mouth.
Oh, where am I?
Standing and walking with you.
And it's good to die for even.