Brow Beat

#HoldYourBreath, which has the dubious distinction of being the first movie whose title is also a hashtag, comes out today. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the film’s promoters have launched a Twitter contest in hopes of making the hashtag a viral hit. Not knowing much about the film, I turned to the social media site to see what everyday people were saying about it. Here’s what I learned about the movie from Twitter:

#HoldYourBreath is a romantic comedy.

Then again, it might be a gross-out teen comedy.

Or maybe a Mean Girls-type send-up of high-school social dynamics.

It could be a medical thriller, along the lines of Contagion.

There is also the possibility that #HoldYourBreath is a documentary exposé of the inner workings of investment banks.

Don’t quote me on that, though—I think it’s a documentary, but there’s a chance the subject matter is pollution in Idaho.

Or maybe it’s a more existential work, an update on Sartre’s No Exit, with its famous claim that “Hell is other people”:

Update: It turns out that that #HoldYourBreath is a horror movie, taking its name from the children’s game of holding your breath when you pass by a cemetery to avoid being possessed by evil spirits. Maybe they should have chosen a less banal urban-legend-inspired hashtag? There are currently no Twitter search results for #KillerintheBackseat.