For many episodes, I held my breath, expecting Dani and Jamie to be caught together and subjected to the Lady of the Lake because of their relationship.

The first episode of American Horror Story: Cult, which originally aired in 2017, begins with footage of Trump and Clinton on the campaign trail, followed by the election night reveal as it’s received by a group of well-to-do liberal friends, a fanatic, and a Vassar-dropout in Michigan.

Alain Guiraudie’s Stranger by the Lake unmoors from time, marking the days instead by shots of Franck’s car pulling into a dirt lot by the woods. Every day, he walks down the same paths, reaching the beach where gay men lay naked and prone on the shore like sunning seals, penises flopped out, bellies bulging over the water as they glance at the latest arrival.

The Invitation inhabits this space of obscured certainty, of seeing just enough to dread the worst, using it to explore the anxieties of changing times and growing apart from friends you've once known.

In science class, a student rushed out of the room with a bloody nose. Sitting in my backyard, I watched as a fly landed on a rock next to me and moved just like the one in the film. Convinced I was doomed, I counted my days without telling anyone I was afraid.