Hereditary (Ari Aster)

[Spinal]

I just heard Judy Collins' "Both Sides Now" for the first time since seeing this movie and had this immediate emotional reaction. It was startling.

[Peng]

I feel like there must be a perfect middle ground somewhere between The Babadook's drama/horror complete overlap and Hereditary's drama/horror undermining distance. The former has the drama thematically explain the horror too much for the spooky stuff to be truly effective. Meanwhile, Hereditary's dramatic function is to prime its characters and audience emotionally for the horror to come, but feels otherwise both mostly divorced from the spookiness and slightly underdeveloped, despite being there for more than half the film.

The problem for me may be that both its drama and horror requires a whole fleshed-out ensemble, but only Toni Collette is granted that full insight, so the rest of the family gets short shrift. It's fine with Milly Shapiro because she's used more for symbolic uneasiness, but Alex Wolff, who should be Collette's equal, feels a few character beats away from being complete player, while Gabriel Bynre is almost completely wasted as a family member. It makes his character's strong skepticism at one late point feels intrusive rather than earned, like unnecessary drama undermining the escalating horror, because he barely makes a dent in this family dynmaics at all. Maybe the three-hour first cut that reportedly has its dramatic parts cut down to this version might rectify this?

However, even if the family drama doesn't complement the supernatural well, it's still effective enough during the first half, thanks mostly to Collette's intensity. And its distance has one full advantage over The Babadook's overlap, which is that the horror can wreak havoc on the nerves directly unburdened by rational metaphors. The 'explanation' here comes in little waves for us to just barely comprehend, enough for the proceedings to make some horrible sense, and only arrives fully in the last scene, which doesn't bother me as much as most people because the execution is still plenty creepy. And by that point, the former freaky 20 minutes or so have enough unholy imagery, unbearable drawn-out tension, and background horrors about to be unleashed at any moment to make all my limbs go cold. 8/10

[Dead & Messed Up]

I did not have a strong reaction to this movie. There are well-crafted elements and sequences, and the performance by Toni Collette obviously kicks the film up a level - although I wonder if she could've replaced her franticness with a calmer certainty at certain points ("frazzled" is a more unkind word, but she's frazzled without many breaks for a long stretch of the film). But in the final five minutes, when the film completes its deep dive into the abyss of human venality, my mind was wandering. Why? I'm not sure. I think maybe the issue is that the teenage boy is too dazed to capture enough of my empathy.

Spoilers to better explain and draw parallels: [

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I felt similarly about Sheri Moon Zombie in The Lords of Salem, another movie along these lines. More psychedelic, for sure, but chasing some of the same moods and story beats and falling into the same challenge. The Platonic ideal for this kind of character is Rosemary Woodhouse, who fought up until the final moments and had real perspective and passion for the position she'd been placed in (there's no one here to spit in the face of the cruel people behind the act). Something about these dazed death marches feels a little off to me. Or maybe they're not to my taste.

]

In general, though, and no disrespect to the individual indie horror films of recent years, but there does seem to be a pattern of thought that classy, slow-burn, shadowy, Kubrickian horror is the best and most elevating style of horror. And some of these films have really transcended and been special (I have much love for The Babadook and think It Follows has stretches of brilliance in a sturdy package). And this film is good and worthy and, again, features a commanding lead performance. And I'm sure there will be plenty of hot takes out there to read on the film's themes and unpacking of family trauma and the different meanings of the title.

I just left the film saying "Huh." Instead of "Wow."

Which isn't bad!

But it's not a wow.

Maybe it will be someday.

[Dukefrukem]

What an incredible visceral experience.

[Dukefrukem]

Fun fact: I'm friends with Ari Aster and I've known him since he was a teenager. I haven't seen him since he moved to Los Angeles from New Mexico for AFI about a decade ago, but I'm really happy about his success with this. Last time I saw him we (and another mutual friend) all went to see Danny Boyle's Sunshine together.

Holy hell! Message him on FB and tell him we love this work.

[Dukefrukem]

The ending might be a little *too* Rosemary's Baby, and I know the original cut was three hours long, so there seems to be sleight of hand omissions which may or may not be better for the film. By that I mean that it unfolds a bit like a puzzle with a few pieces missing here and there, but that off-kilter sense of confusion only adds to the palpable terror..

It's obvious they cut a ton out. The ADRed Jeanie saying 'the whole family needs to be in the "HOUSE"', even though she mouths "ROOM". So I think there was a scene cut out where they were speaking the words all in the same room and changed it to house. I'd imagine there was a lot more going on from that point on.

This DOES ring Rosemary's Baby, as does the Shining. The confusion works.

[Dead & Messed Up]

I didn't realize Ari Aster was the demented boy behind this sexy slice of domestic tragedy.

[Pop Trash]

I didn't realize Ari Aster was the demented boy behind this sexy slice of domestic tragedy.

Yeah, I thought that would wreck his career in Hollywood, honestly. Which is why I was doubly surprised when he was able to make a feature film w/ A24 distribution.

[Dead & Messed Up]

As an auteur, he is fascinated by broken families and the way children threaten to devour their parents.

[strokes chin]

[submits article pitch to Vox.com]

[Scar]

I wonder how the ending would play if you removed Ann Dowd's voiceover.

Those last fifteen seconds pissed me off something fierce. It was like enjoying a thirty five year scotch for two hours and then someone spit rail whiskey in your mouth.

[Irish]

I went in expecting a lot because of the high praise from all quarters but the writing here was absolutely fucking terrible.

The characters are shallow, the beats haphazard, and it's not much of a story. Instead, we get ham-handed exposition and a lot of tired ideas around the occult and a buncha images to match.

This was really lame. Tried waaaaaaaaaayy too fucking hard. :\

^ This this this. Good God.

[Yxklyx]

How come every time I see a movie with Toni Collette I don't realize she's in it until the credits roll?

[StuSmallz]

I finally just watched this, and I definitely didn't like it on the whole. Don't get me wrong, I didn't think it was BAD or anything, just disappointing in comparison to my expectations. There were good aspects, of course; the intense performances, creepy cinematography, and lovingly detailed production design were all quite good on their own, it's just in the overall tone and execution that the film struggles, as we go from a slightly problematic but still relatively promising first half to an endless parade of tiresome Horror cliches (demonic cults, ghostly/demonic possessions, gratuitous nightmare fake-outs, etc.), mostly executed in as tediously an over-the-top manner as possible, one-right-after-another with almost no sense of pacing or restraint, as if Ari Aster hoped that all the vaguely demon-themed crap he was throwing at the wall and us would somehow end up coalescing into a cohesive film (they didn't). Not effective, not scary, but often pretty ridiculous. Like I said, not a bad film, as it IS executed with an undeniable amount of skill in certain aspects, but it is directed with little overall discipline, and Aster's going to need to significantly revamp his style if he wants me to stay interested in his career from this point on.

[transmogrifier]

I pretty much disagree with all of that word for word, point for point.

Still, that's the great thing about movies - there's something for everyone.

[megladon8]

Holy moly, this one shook me up something fierce.

[Pop Trash]

I feel like this is structured a bit like The House of the Devil (Ti West) with a long slow burn w/ tasty formal camerawork with the last 30 minutes unleashing the horror elements in quick succession.

[Grouchy]

I give it a very reluctant Nay. The film is jaw-dropping for the first half when it's not completely clear where it's going. Then it seems to rebel against its previous uniqueness and goes straight into overly familiar genre tropes for the last half. I agree there's something wrong with the pacing that makes the film seem more a compilation of creepy/dramatic scenes than a narrative.

Regardless, I'm still looking forward to the next Aster joint. And how about that Toni Colette performance? Wild stuff.

[StuSmallz]

I give it a very reluctant Nay. The film is jaw-dropping for the first half when it's not completely clear where it's going. Then it seems to rebel against its previous uniqueness and goes straight into overly familiar genre tropes for the last half. I agree there's something wrong with the pacing that makes the film seem more a compilation of creepy/dramatic scenes than a narrative.

Regardless, I'm still looking forward to the next Aster joint. And how about that Toni Colette performance? Wild stuff.

Well, while I've already been up-front with my overall disappointment with the film here, I do agree Collette's performance alone was quite praise-worthy, as she was absolutely convincing as a hysterical woman cracking under various stresses, demonic and otherwise, and she was undeniably effective in it... up to a point. You see, something like the scene at about the half-hour mark after [

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you-know-what-happened, and she's on the floor absolutely screaming her heart out is not only completely believable on the part of her acting, but also utterly appropriate and effective at that point in the film, considering what had just happened; it really was one of the most heart-breaking things I've ever heard in any film, period.

]

But, in the second half of the film, as it increasingly devolved into a non-stop series of ridiculous, excessive Horror cliches (including not just one, but two gratuitous nightmare fake-outs in a row), her performance (along with Wolff's) similarly devolved into a lot of non-stop crying, screaming, and general hysterics, which makes me agree with DaMU that her portrayal of Annie lose a lot of its potency due to the nature of its sheer, repetitive over-the-top-ness. It's not an issue of her choosing to chew the scenery or anything, as it seemed to me like she was just matching her performance to the overall tone of the film at Ari Aster's behest, but the absurd tone of Hereditary itself was a problem for me, as it ended up rendering Collette much less effective than she should've been. I'd be okay with her getting an Oscar nom for it, but personally, I would not give her the actual award due to misuse of her talents by the director, and it's a shame a more disciplined filmmaker couldn't have put her considerable skill to better use (like, say, a Sixth Sense-circa M. Knight, even?), because, as her performance in the film stands now, at a certain point it mostly just becomes a tiresome series of Jim Carrey-level facial contortions that are barely less ridiculous in context than they are out of it:


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[MadMan]

Heh I keep forgetting about these threads. Anyways this was utterly freaky as hell, and Toni Collette owned this movie.

[Yxklyx]

...But, in the second half of the film, as it increasingly devolved into a non-stop series of ridiculous, excessive Horror cliches (including not just one, but two gratuitous nightmare fake-outs in a row), her performance (along with Wolff's) similarly devolved into a lot of non-stop crying, ...

Have not seen this in a while but I recall the tone shifting towards the end (ala Rosemary's Baby, the ending which some like and some don't) and those horror cliches were part of this shift.

[StuSmallz]

Have not seen this in a while but I recall the tone shifting towards the end (ala Rosemary's Baby, the ending which some like and some don't) and those horror cliches were part of this shift.

I know that, but the film's shift towards over-indulging in genre cliches and its increasingly excessive overall tone being intentional decisions on Aster's part doesn't automatically make them the correct creative choices for the movie in question, and in my opinion, it most certainly was not when it comes to Hereditary​.

[Pop Trash]

I mean, couldn't you make the same argument against Jack Nicholson's performance in The Shining or Linda Blair's / Mercedes McCambridge's performance in The Exorcist?

If there's a criticism I would have, it's that tonally and structurally it's a little too close to Rosemary's Baby, both with the long slow burn into horror, Ann Dowd basically playing the Ruth Gordon role of the "helpful" neighbor, and the is this / is this not horror red herrings until the other shoe finally drops in the last scene... but there's certainly worse movies to be than a 2k18 Rosemary's Baby homage.

[StuSmallz]

I mean, couldn't you make the same argument against Jack Nicholson's performance in The Shining or Linda Blair's / Mercedes McCambridge's performance in The Exorcist?

Yes, and couldn't you also make the argument that implying that someone's contradicting themselves if their opinions about separate aspects (like individual performances versus overall tone) of different movies aren't perceived by others as having a total consistency (as if anyone's personal feelings about anything in the history of mankind have ever worked that way) is the definition of a invalid "gotcha" argument? I think you could.