I wasn’t expecting my choice of Halloween horror movie to include a mystery phone, which would then occupy my thoughts for a few days, even over and above the creepy film itself.
The film was It Follows, and the mystery device was a shell-shaped foldable with an e-paper screen, used several times during the film by one of the main characters.
Watching today gives us a fascinating look at what was considered both plausible and implausible back then, and how the mobile industry has somehow managed not to build a version of it, despite having all the tech to do so.
What is that thing?
And which company made it?
As a mobile nerd, I did a double-take when I first saw the odd device used on screen in the movie.
It’s in the hands of Yara, played by Olivia Luccardi, and we see her holding what initially looks like a makeup compact, as it’s pink and shaped like an oyster shell.
However, the film cuts to her viewpoint, and it shows the compact has two e-paper screens, on which she’s reading a book.
The device showed up several times in the film, and each time it did, I asked myself, “What is that thing?”
Popular phones in 2015 included the Samsung Galaxy S6, the Apple iPhone 6S, and the Nexus 5X. It may be a while back, but I’m pretty sure none of them folded up.
It’s definitely supposed to be a phone too, as there’s a familiar cell signal indicator in the corner of the upper screen.
It turns out it was made specially for the movie. In an interview at the time, director David Robert Mitchell revealed it was part of an effort to avoid pinpointing the time period in which the film is set.
It genuinely adds to the uneasy, out-of-time atmosphere of the film, along with the notable use of CRT portable televisions.
Futuristic, or something else?
Based in reality
After I’d discovered the Shellphone (instead of cellphone, geddit?) wasn’t a real thing, it made me wonder how it fitted in with the mobile technology of the day, and whether we came close to actually making a device like it or not.
It turned into a fascinating look back at mobile devices that were popular a decade ago, and the huge shift in mobile hardware that was about to take place.
The Shellphone was a folding device with two separate circular e-paper screens. Was a device like that even possible in 2015?
Clamshell phones were still popular at the time, but only in some regions, while e-paper devices were in the midst of a popularity boom of their own.
Circular screens? Well, they just weren’t a thing at all. Let’s break the tech down.
The clamshell phones grabbing headlines at the time were the Samsung SM-W2015 and the LG Wine Smart, both of which had a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and Android.
Sounds modern, right? Not when you learn it was Android 4.4 KitKat onboard, and very different from Android today.
If you wanted a device with an e-paper screen, the third-generation Kindle Paperwhite came out in 2015, but more excitingly, you could also buy the Yota Phone 2.
For those who don’t know, the Yota Phone 2 had an OLED screen on the front and an E-Ink screen on the back, which ran its own special operating system.
Folding phone fever was coming
But not like this one
Although e-paper screens and clamshell phones were both available, they hadn’t been combined into one like the Shellphone, and a true foldable hadn’t made its first appearance either.
However, it was all mobile tech fans could think about.
The folding smartphone had been a hot topic for a few years when It Follows came out, with Samsung’s Youm concept kicking things off, and its so-called Project Valley concept capturing headlines in 2015. The original Galaxy Fold came out in 2019.
LG was also experimenting with bendable screens and launched the LG G Flex in early 2015, but decided to leave the mobile industry completely before its own foldable, or even bendable, smartphone could become a reality.
All this ensured the Shellphone in It Follows was like nothing else available at the time, but was clearly influenced by real and rumored devices of the time.
Yet, the playful, rather toy-like plastic shell didn’t make it look especially futuristic. If you’d have told me it was a weird crowdfunded project cobbled together by a fly-by-night startup around 2015, I would’ve believed you.
Circles, or foldables?
Circular screens on phones are a rarity
The Shellphone pre-dated the device which comes closest to replicating its functionality — the compact folding phone — by five years.
Motorola’s re-imagined Razr foldable and the first Samsung Galaxy Z Flip came in 2019 and 2020. It was, in this respect, somewhat portentous.
However, the Shellphone in the movie had more in common with a regular clamshell phone, or the Microsoft Surface Duo, than it did the Z Flip because it used two screens rather than a single, bendable screen.
If the dual e-paper screens and shell-like case didn’t make it unusual enough, the circular screens really make it stand out.
Phones with circular screens were really rare, but examples did exist. The very odd Cyrcle with its round 3.45-inch screen made an appearance at CES 2020 and had a proposed 2021 launch date, but it never arrived.
Around the time of the It Follows release, a concept phone called the Monohm Runcible also gained some attention, but it was more pocket watch than smartphone, with its smooth wooden case and compact dimensions.
Circular screens have since been used as cover screens on foldables like the Tecno Phantom V Flip and on smartwatches.
It has never become a real gadget
And people are sad
When you break it down, the unusual clam-shaped device in the movie is arguably highly representative of how traditional clamshell phones were gradually morphing into foldables, and how the industry was keen to experiment with different case styles and screen technology as smartphones rocketed in popularity.
Yet, the mobile industry unintentionally skirted around accidentally making a consumer version of the It Follows’ Shellphone, despite creating devices that use all its technology.
It’s not hard to find people who are disappointed by this, either. A post about the device was made on the r/INEEEEDIT subreddit in 2019, and more recently, a story titled “I’m still thinking about the Clam Phone in It Follows” appeared on Collider.
Capturing interest
Not just with phone obsessives
The Shellphone has made such an impact that those connected with the movie are still being asked about it.
Maika Monroe, who plays Jay in the film, said in an interview with Dread Central she would talk to director Mitchell about putting a more advanced version of the device in the sequel, They Follow.
Unlike famous movie phones like the Nokia 8110 in The Matrix, the Shellphone is entirely fictitious, but it’s still completely grounded in reality, to the point where it could genuinely be made at the time.
It’s also surprisingly representative of the mobile industry’s creativity and the direction it was headed.
The Clam Phone/Shellphone/Clam e-Reader in It Follows will continue to be discovered by movie watchers for years to come, but has the time passed for a brave company to actually make one for real? Probably, but I’d still like to see one try.
