Banjo

The scouts

A coming-of-age sex comedy that pivots hard into cult paranoia is exactly the kind of tonal whiplash most scouts run from—which is precisely why Poletti nails it. Takes the most conventional setup imaginable and uses it as cover for something genuinely warped and unpredictable.

Poletti demonstrates clear control over genre conventions, allowing the film to breathe within its comedic register before the horror infrastructure reveals itself as structurally purposeful. The restraint in early scenes—knowing when not to heighten—shows a filmmaker aware of tonal tradition and how to subvert it deliberately.

The crucial move here is the sound design layering ambient dread under what should be pure awkward-comedy beats, making you unsure whether the sinister tone is real or Isaac's increasingly paranoid projection—one sonic choice that reframes the entire narrative and turns a premise into something genuinely unsettling.