imagining what’s behind the door
by Douglas Messerli
Lyndon Henley Hanrahan (screenplay), Nora Dahle
Borchgrevink and Lyndon Henley Hanrahan (directors) I
Hope He Doesn't Kill Me / 2024 [13 minutes]
A cute young man, Buzz (Lyndon Henley Hanrahan)
pushes the buzzer to the door of his anonymous Grindr hookup, but just before
anyone answers, he suffers, time and again, various scenarios that might play
out within.
In first the horrifying vision, he is tied
up and bound in an S&M date with the man suggesting that he is going to
skin him alive and eat him, a knife already put to the boy’s throat. The young
man suggests that he has eczema.
In the
second fantasy he has met up with a handsome man who drugs him by offering him
a glass of water. They also fight over language, the young man arguing the
other’s words are so “not sexy.” But all of that doesn’t matter in the end,
since our young hero simply passes out.
The next
ring of the buzzer brings Buzz into contact with a man who simply likes to
imagine others on the street wondering what might be happening with the
flashing “speckles” in his bedroom, and has scheduled a uber to show up just
after Buzz and he have retired into bed.
The next
man has just come out since his “super homophobic” Dad passed away about a
half-hour before, having been wrapped in a “Turkey bag” where in he evidently suffocated.
The body still lies in the kitchen.
Perhaps
the wildest of Buzz’ imaginings is when he meets up with a young man whose
mother is from Sheffield, but who father “fucked off back to Chicago.” It so
happens that Chicago is also where Buzz’ family is from.
Why is that worse that “regular incest” queries
his Buzz,” his bedmate suggesting that Buzz himself is now pejorating gay incest by describing the heterosexual version as “regular.” His Grindr date determines that they are
going to have to kill themselves, holding up a looped rope.
When the
buzzer is actually answered, it turns out to be a nice guy with whom we can
presume Buzz has had great sex. But yes, we are reminded that such killers and
odd perverts (all performed, in this case, by Vincent Moisy) may just be out
there waiting for a visit from an innocent blind Grindr date. These are the
fears of the digital age.
This
comic work from the United Kingdom, performed without any British accents, is a
beautifully lit and colorful comedy with excellent acting that has made it
quite popular on the gay film circuits of 2024 and 2025.
Los Angeles, July 2, 2025
Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (July
2025).
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