Depending on the context, the words “you are not alone” can either be frightening, or comforting. A sign of extraterrestrial life can give meaning to a lonely existence, just as footsteps outside your bedroom door can incite dread.

We are constantly surveilled by our oppressors, yet looked after by our friends. When we finally find love it’s wondrous, but that love can also smother, and urge us to chop off our fingers.

When do watchful eyes start to threaten and cease to soothe? In many ways these films circle around this notion - the freedom of loneliness and the poisons of the ever-present. The joys of finding like-minded friends and the helplessness of submitting to those who see us but don’t care to understand us.

Even in moments of solitude, still the spirits of those who came before us live on beside us, pickled and brushing our hair. Does this bring you comfort? Or make you shudder?

Sophia Bazalgette