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Hereditary - how scary is it? (spoilers)


Isis

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When I saw the trailer for this a while ago my first thought was: that looks terrifying, I will never be able to watch it. Then I started seeing really positive reviews and thought, oh no, I want to see this, I am going to have to brave it at the cinema. So we went yesterday during the day (to be on the safe side) and I spent the whole film being nervous that I'd see something unforgettably terrifying which would haunt me for months. BUT... that didn't happen. For which I am hugely relieved. It is definitely disturbing, but for me films which are out-and-out supernatural aren't that scary to me.

First of all, I got off on a bad footing with it, when the opening scene has this really ominous music accompanying a shot of a miniture house. I just found that so heavy-handed and un-subtle. I really enjoy films that do impressive things with sound production (e.g. Kill List, Only God Forgives, Upstream Color) and I think this film just went too far with it (even worse than The Killing of a Sacred Deer even).

Toni Collette is pretty scary in this film in her tightly coiled, almost controlled self-loathing and disintrest in anyone else. The moments when the mask slips are believeable. In fact, you could almost believe that she was evil/hiding an evil nature all along (NB I don't think this was the case) because she is so closed off and self-contained. And it's funny that she described her mother as secretive lol. So many people convince themselves they are nothing like their parents, don't they.

Charlie reminded me of that 1990's cartoon, Stressed Eric, where the main character's daughter had a nut allergy and almost actively sought out nuts so that if left alone in a room with food containing nuts would inevitably consume them and then her face would swell up (as in, it was a regular occurence). This film reminded me a little of The Witch, where the two little kids behave like absoulte demons and you're thinking: 'what little devils!' and then it turns out that they were possessed all along. But here, Charlie is virtually a sociopath and you're thinking, hmm, there's something wrong with this kid and then again it turns out that they were actually an evil spirit all along. Cool. If only life was that simple.

So, why did the grandmother have her head cut off as well? She was intact in her coffin. What was the purpose of that meant to be. And then was it fully intended that Charlie also die by decapitation? Or was that just a bonus?

Also, if Peter wasn't possessed until the end of the film then what was the bit where he was smashing his head on the desk about?

I will return with more thoughts later...

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Funny you bring up The Witch, because Hereditary worked for me on so many more levels than that one did. Going in I was afraid I was going to be letdown by another A24 horror movie with a ton of hype surrounding it. The praise is well deserved in this case though, imo. I think it’s the best horror movie in years. And Toni Collette probably gave the best performance I’ve seen in a horror movie since Essie Davis in The Babadook. 

As far as nothing unforgettably terrifying, the naked cult members creeped me out more than anyone Paimon was possessing. I would have been out that attic window even faster than Peter was. Charlie’s death was also one of the more shocking things I’ve seen in quite a while. My jaw dropped when they cut to her bug infested head on the side of the road. 

I’m not sure why grandma Leigh had to be decapitated since she had already transferred Paimon over to Charlie when she was a baby. I also wondered if the death by telephone pole was preordained? They showed a pole at the beginning with the sigil carved in it. I assume it was the same one? 

Peter smashing his head on the desk happened  right after Jeannie came to the school and was ordering him out right? That felt like some kind of pre-transfer preparation...not entirely sure on that one though. 

I do know I can’t wait to watch this again. 

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30 minutes ago, Nictarion said:

I do know I can’t wait to watch this again. 

Right after the telegraph pole decapitation my first thought was: I will never watch this movie again. Because that scene, where you REALLY don't want Peter to look is so excruciating to be present for.

Yeah, I pointed out to my husband that we had 'seen' the telegraph pole when they drove past on the way to the party (he didn't recall it). I thought it maybe had a face in it, but I didn't recognise it as the cult symbol. Well spotted!

To clarify, it's not that there wasn't anything in the film that I found scary. It's more that it didn't cross my own personal threshold level for 'so disturbing that my brain will keep on reminding me of it every time I am in the dark'. It still bothered me a bit when I was lying awake last night though.

Ok, so a couple of other things I was thinking about afterwards - is there supposed to be a line that runs between grieving woman who is anxious/disturbed and woman who is literally possessed? And is it significant that the film portrays the matriarchal line as 'abnormal', disturbed, etc, but that the evil spirit needs a male body? Also, if it needs a male body then why was it not transferred to Peter in the first place? Does it just like, hang out/kill time, in female bodies until it can get a male one?

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9 minutes ago, Isis said:

Also, if it needs a male body then why was it not transferred to Peter in the first place? Does it just like, hang out/kill time, in female bodies until it can get a male one?

Maybe the grandmother didn’t want a repeat of what happened with her own son where he killed himself rather than become possessed. They did mention the transfer would work better if it was a vulnerable male, so maybe they needed to break Peter down before trying since he was already so old? Jeannie also made a big deal about Peter being part of the seance so with Charlie dead they had the opportunity to start the process. 

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2 hours ago, Isis said:

Right after the telegraph pole decapitation my first thought was: I will never watch this movie again. Because that scene, where you REALLY don't want Peter to look is so excruciating to be present for.

Yeah, I pointed out to my husband that we had 'seen' the telegraph pole when they drove past on the way to the party (he didn't recall it). I thought it maybe had a face in it, but I didn't recognise it as the cult symbol. Well spotted!

To clarify, it's not that there wasn't anything in the film that I found scary. It's more that it didn't cross my own personal threshold level for 'so disturbing that my brain will keep on reminding me of it every time I am in the dark'. It still bothered me a bit when I was lying awake last night though.

Ok, so a couple of other things I was thinking about afterwards - is there supposed to be a line that runs between grieving woman who is anxious/disturbed and woman who is literally possessed? And is it significant that the film portrays the matriarchal line as 'abnormal', disturbed, etc, but that the evil spirit needs a male body? Also, if it needs a male body then why was it not transferred to Peter in the first place? Does it just like, hang out/kill time, in female bodies until it can get a male one?

So I'm with you there. Hereditary did not scare me at all--it's not this horrifying movie (for me) that critics made it out to be. But the scene with the pole was unsettling. In lesser hands, it could have been contrived/forced/unrealistic, but it was shot effectively, and the impact of the scene and its aftermath was very upsetting (in a gut punch kind of way). In some ways, I don't think the movie ever could rise to the momentum of that scene again--even with all the cult stuff at the end.

As for why not Peter sooner--if I understand your question (because this is a story about family history, so your question about "in the first place" could mean a lot of different things, right?), but I'm guessing you mean, why not when Peter was a baby--like they did with Charlie? If I remember correctly, Toni Collette's character was explaining (maybe at the support network) that she and her husband had cut her mom out of their life when she was pregnant with Peter, and that she had no access to him until he was much older. When Charlie was born, though, she "got her hooks/mitts into her" right away I believe the line was. So doing it when they are babies makes me believe the struggle isn't so difficult. As someone else mentioned, Toni C's (character's) brother killed himself likely due to going through what Peter did.

Either way, I thought it was a good movie. Not particularly scary. Upsetting maybe, and sometimes silly. The end was a direct rip/homage from Rosemary's Baby, and having seen that, there were no surprises there.

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2 hours ago, Isis said:

I think it's still early days yet. It only came out in the UK this past week so hopefully more people will go to see it.

 

In the meantime here is a list from the Guardian which prompted a lot of discussion at my house. American Psycho is not a horror film!

Top 25 Horror Films...or are they?

Guardian lists would fill the top ten of "list of utterly random lists that don't make much sense"

I used to like horrors but at some point decided it wasn't worth the angst it causes me afterwards. I can handle adaptations if I've read the source material but new films I'm very wary of and certainly don't watch until I have the option to bail out when viewing at home

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A bunch of my favorites are on that list but there’s some glaring omissions. Alien? The Thing? Not sure I agree with Get Out making the cut either. Good movie, but maybe a tad overrated. There’s a few on there I need to see, too. 

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I find their lists always prompt discussion and isn't that most of the point after all? 

Yes, I absolutely think Alien (horror (monster) story in space needs to be there. It's a bit like a haunted house story. 

Hang on, is Jaws there? 

I have a funny relationship with 'horror' films too. Around the time of the Final Destination films I swore off all films with jump scares because the expectation of them made me too anxious to watch the film properly. I just didn't enjoy them. Ditto, to a lesser extent, super gory films. I just found life was too short to be bothered with them. 

But I think you can risk going to see Hereditary, red snow. Have you seen The Witch? That made me far more anxious, as it built so much tension. This film holds your attention but not so much because you're terrified, as just wanting to know what happens. 

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It Follows freaked me out for a long time. In many ways I wish I had never watched it, it was so disturbing. If that doesn't earn it a place in a list of top horror films then I don't know what would.

You know, maybe, just maybe we should do our own top whatever list. Probably not top 25 though as that's too many. Lists are always good for starting fights in this forum.

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On 6/18/2018 at 4:51 AM, Nictarion said:

Charlie’s death was also one of the more shocking things I’ve seen in quite a while. My jaw dropped when they cut to her bug infested head on the side of the road. 

These were the most terrifying moments of the film IMO. These and the dawning realization Peter just went to bed leaving Charlie's headless body in the car for his mom to find.

And overall found the film very unsettling. Agree with those saying Toni Collete was excellent. She has one of those faces uniquely well suited for horror, like Shelley Duvall. The musical score also made you feel like you were descending into the schizophrenia that seemed to be afflicting multiple characters. 

That said, felt a lot of the horror was undone with the over the top supernatural ending. I thought it would go the other way and focus on the real instead of the magical. The film is called Hereditary and it's clear the family has a history of extreme mental illness. I could see the trauma of Peter's disastrous mistake causing both him and Annie to become completely unglued. So much could be explained by their mounting hallucinations and nightmares alone. I find familial mental illness and a family's inability to deal with the resentment that builds when the son does something unforgivable way scarier than a Satanic cult and possession by a devil king. To me those kind of horror contrivances let the viewer off the hook. We can ascribe some external malevolent force to all the awfulness occurring instead of the internal demons it established so well.

Which ultimately keeps this film from reaching the level of the Shining, which is a shame, because it felt it was building that way. The first hour or so was really awesome. But like so many horror films, felt it didn't stick the landing. 

 

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20 hours ago, Nictarion said:

This movie deserves so much more attention. I hope this thread isn’t indicative of how it’s doing at the box office. People really need to support this kind of movie so more stuff like this can be given a wide release. 

According to the article below it is actually over performing, which is great. I just saw it for the second time today during the day and there was a pretty good crowd.

 http://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3504759/hereditary-possesses-box-office-tops-a24s-witch/

 

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PLEASE GUYS!!! 

I can’t be the only one with this reaction...

when the movie ended I might have accidentally terrified or greatly amused the other cinema goers because I full o went “HAHAHAHAHAHHAHA WHAT THE FUCK” 

honestly the ending made it lose its steam for me - i enjoyed it I think!!! But it felt VERY reminiscent of all those old hammer horror/universal movies from a few decades ago that were obsessed with the occur and evil witches. Felt kinda cartoon.

im a bit surprised someone upthread said this film worked more than The VVitch for them. I thought the VVitch was excellent - I thought this was good too! I think? I’m a bit confused by my reaction tbh lol and I’m hoping I’m not the only one that had it 

I DID think the use of the tongue click to evoke horror was very effective though 

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I’m being UNFAIR because there were genuine effective moments of horror - the clinging to the ceiling and smashing her head against the attic door was horrifying - the acting was fantastic - the little girl was suitably kinda terrifying and well cast. I just kind of felt the evil witch coven thing was kind of very retro and old fashioned.

i dunno...maybe that makes the ending a good one - because it just goes full on gothic horror bonkers like Cure For Wellness which I actually loved. I think it was worth making and I’m glad I watched it in the cinema but I watched mother! last night and felt that affected me more. 

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