2. "THE HYPE IS REAL. it's a disgustingly beautiful gift to horror fans" In response to Reply # 0 Sat Jun-09-18 11:37 AM by BigReg
I honestly didn't think American horror had it in them anymore.
Here's the thing, we've had many good horror movies over the years but while most of them were strong in imagination, in actual craft they've just been OK. (Funny enough, the last big critically acclaimed horror movie, It Follows, was the reverse, lol)
This reminds me of Mad Max in a way. In that case they couldda phoned it in with CGI, cheap explosions but instead it was a meticulously and lovingly crafted ode to films that blow shit up good.
70's horror was a wide spanning genre where an art film like Suspiria could sit next to Halloween. Since than it felt that there's usually a dominant subgenre (slasher flicks 80s, odes to same flicks 90's, gore porn in the 00's, ghost stories in the 10's) that were workman-like in execution. Good movies, but not made with that Fangoria type ove, nahmean?
This shit is pure uncut horror man. Only complaint I can see is that for some slasher flick used to cheap continuous payoffs every 10-15 minutes or so might find it slow moving. But the atmosphere they sprinkle from the first frame of the movie *insert salt bae gif*. AND WHEN THAT SHIT BUILDS UP, MY NIGGA
8. "I'm going this week with no pre knowledge.." In response to Reply # 0
Im going in blind, going based ONLY on the suggestion from some folks whos opinion i trust who simply said "go see it" (a few of the folks at "Screen Junkies")
I like going in blind....In fact I probably shouldn't have even clicked in this thread at all lol. (Even though I didn't read each of the sub posts I accidentally saw some info that I can't unsee, nothing spoilery, but just enough to give me an expectation...so perhaps I won't be totally blind, just partially blind....
12. "Really good UNTIL the very end" In response to Reply # 0
First it's kind of a quiet piece on loss, PTSD and a family slowly falling apart at the scenes.
It gets increasingly creepy and builds to an insane and legit terrifying climax.
BUT THEN
They end it all with my least favorite horror trope. It didn't ruin the movie for me, because admittedly, they were setting it up all along. But damn it, I don't find it scary at all. No spoiler, but everyone who's seen it knows what I'm referring to.
The scariest part? It's the same reason why, even though it's not a horror favorite of mine, I have to admit that Event Horizon was for the most part so effectively creepy and disturbing. It's kind of in the title: this idea you are going to become a monster. You were meant to, it was going to happen, you can't fight it and you can't change course...then suddenly you turn into the monster that you were terrified of and running from the entire time. That is really fucking scary to me.
I liked this WAY more than The Witch. The Witch in my mind was just kind of like a dark superhero or super villain origin story. I don't find witches or witchcraft or Satanists particularly scary, so it just seems like people discovering super powers. Which creeps into my big issue with Hereditary, but again, I don't want to spoil it.
18. "okay (BIG SPOILER)" In response to Reply # 17
Man, I am so done with the Rosemary's Baby ending. Witches, covens "This was our grand plan to summon the evil ____ Hail Satan THE END!"...that stuff is just not scary to me. At all.
The movie built up to the scariest climax I've seen in a long time, and then that last big reveal deflated it. For me, at least.
15. "RE: The end got silly (SPOILER)" In response to Reply # 14
I was all the way with it when Toni Collette finally lost her shit and full demon. That climbing on the walls, floating around, banging her head on the attic door and then sawing her own mf-ing head off...some of the creepiest stuff I have seen in a long time.
But then they due the whole coven "Rosemary's Baby" explanation, with naked suburbanites just standing around watching with wangs and tidol bitties all hanging out...shit went from incredibly scary to silly in the span of like 10 minutes.
16. "EXACTLY ****** SPOILERS*******" In response to Reply # 15
I was all in on the full out Demon shit, folks were screaming in the theater. Then the moment it went naked the same people who were yelling were then dying laughin and it just lost all its punch.
Loved the head banging, and then head cutting off was great.
20. "I liked the ending" In response to Reply # 16
SPOILERS OF COURSE
Id say it’s because my watching Rosemary’s baby is so far removed that I forget the ending, but I rewatched Wicker Man recently (and the remake, lol) plus another recent UK horror-thriller (not gonna name it to keep it spoiler free) so it wasn’t my first time at the creepy suburban cult ending rodeo.
I look at it like this; it was the third act of a horror movie where things were going down and usually one of three things happen.
1)The “Hero” barely escapes with his/her life vanquishing evil (perhaps there’s a ‘Still gotcha bitch’ final scare around the credit scene showing evil won out in the end) 2)”Hero” dies by the evil’s hand but is able to get rid of the evil on the way out 3)Evil wins, but wins in a way where the audience feels satisfied and less, ‘THE WORLD SUCKS’.
They tried to go another route and go full gore porn/fangoria with his decaying sister mounted on a head with a good amount of devil worship smeared all over the screen. I found the payoff earned because I still didn’t know where they were going with it until he stepped into the treehouse, and I found it effective because that scene was disturbingly beautiful composition of the bodies particularly the ‘praying’ ones, etc. Yeah, cramming a bunch of naked old people into a treehouse seems like a lolz idea on paper but because of all that other stuff it worked for me. You had all that built up tension over the run-time and I felt that seeing a callback to a previous characters messed up death was a good way to let it out as opposed to the easy + expected comedowns in the previous 3 points
22. "I don't disagree with what you're saying" In response to Reply # 20
I'm just saying that I was in the theater and it didn't hit as hard.
I wouldn't say the final 3rd, I would say the moment of out the window to crawling into the treehouse.
They laid it out pretty early so yea it was earned. Charlie said she was supposed to be a boy. Her name was actually Charles. They told you that in order for things to be right Charlie had to be in a male body. They even showed the little spirit flow into Peter's dead body on the ground.
The naked old folks just threw me out of the moment.
31. "The naked old people was haunting imagery. " In response to Reply # 22
I think there was a storytelling problem in that there was no build up to the naked old people. They were forced to explain alot by finally flipping through photo albums that somehow the mother had never seen before.
I disliked the ending because I would have thought the grandmothers story would be a little central. There just have been more clues about what type of woman she was and what she was up to.
I think they could have solved both problems if they threw in a couple of scenes (at the funeral or otherwise) of creepy old people approach Toni "Da Gawd" Collete talking about her mother.
I just think they could have done more to introduce the mother's backstory into it so they didn't have to cram so much in the last third.
>I'm just saying that I was in the theater and it didn't hit >as hard. > >I wouldn't say the final 3rd, I would say the moment of out >the window to crawling into the treehouse. > >They laid it out pretty early so yea it was earned. Charlie >said she was supposed to be a boy. Her name was actually >Charles. They told you that in order for things to be right >Charlie had to be in a male body. They even showed the little >spirit flow into Peter's dead body on the ground. > >The naked old folks just threw me out of the moment.
********** "Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson
If the grandmother's story was more delved into I think it would've helped, but the wide shot with the hundreds of old folks on the lawn was incredibly creepy.
19. "Good flick, definitely worth a watch." In response to Reply # 0
Toni Colette was fantastic. Moments of this one are going to stay in the mind long after you see it. Generally shocking, jaw-dropping moments. Only complaint... I didn't like the son; his bad decisions and some of the acting took me out of it at times.
23. "Damn. That was...whew...damn..." In response to Reply # 0
That was a DAMN good film. DAMN good.
I haven't been that tense in a movie since...hell i can't remember the last time i've felt that on edge. In some parts i think i was having a hard-time breathing... Crowd i saw it with was all in...there were moments where you could just FEEL the entire crowd was together in their hightened state of anxious-ness.
So extremely well crafted/directed. Just wow. And the acting? good lord. Toni Collette? GTFOOH ...go ahead and send her her statue please. I wanted to see more Milly Shapiro, i thought she was great (but alas...). And i know some above disagree, but i thought Alex Wolf was absolutely amazing as well. (the scene of him in the car reacting to what just happened?....that was one of those 'i can't catch my breath' moments for me, and his performance in that scene alone is part of the reason).
go see this. don't read anything about it in advance. just go in and let it unfold...
27. "and the CHOICES the director made (spoilers)..." In response to Reply # 23
...i just love so many of the choices the director made...
like, again going back to 'the accident' scene(s)... that whole suite of scenes was like a balloon being blown up to the max...JUST to the point of ALMOST explosion...and the choice towards the end of that suite where ... (SPOILER!!!!) the camera stays on the brothers face in the bed, and we HEAR the mother say she's getting ready to leave <one more Puff into the balloon as the balloon skin str-etc-hes out a little more> through brothers face, we HEAR her footsteps walk out the front door <Puff Puff-baloon STRAIning-stre-e-tttch> we HEAR car door open, maybe we hear her throw her purse in the car seat...still on brothers face as he anticipates (and in my theater, i swear i think the whole crowd was holding their breath at this moment. i KNOW i was) <PUFF PUU-FFF-PUUUUF---you can almost hear the balloon skin making that 'I'm about to blow!' stretching/straining/screaching sound..... then...>...
30. "That sequence was incredible. " In response to Reply # 27
Did not imagine the story going that way. So I was deeply disturbed and the long takes on faces really really got to me...but ultimately I didn't like the ending.
********** "Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson
38. "He directed the hell out of a comedy, to the point it was nearly horror" In response to Reply # 27
This is a beautifully shot movie, and if there were a First Timers Who Have Figured Out Spielberg and Scorcese in One Go Award I would hand it to this man. The acting is also great, the ending is also weird. I appreciate, too, a so-called horror film that doesn't beg me to be afraid of it. Correction: the ending is profoundly weird. Hail that! But, uh...maybe put a good story into all of that. I liked Roma because it never asked me to hope for more; it promised sound and cinema and gave it to me. I spent a year wondering how afraid of Hereditary I should be, only to spend the 2nd of 2019 cackling at a third of it and jaw-agape at the other two thirds.
I suppose I'd like to disclaim that I don't like to be scared. So it's not that I wasn't scared. It's that these people lived in the Monica and Chandler apartment of homes, that that kid should not have gone to that party, that I think in 2018 kids shouldn't be afraid of smoking marijuana lest their parents induct a seance and murder each other, that I think maybe a totally sober tongue-clucking kid might still find a way to hide their head from a pole. But! It is so fun to watch and see and be around that part of me wonders how much I missed by being afraid of how afraid I was supposed to be and thus never seeing this in theaters.
Because, by golly, I laughed at this film. Many times. I don't think I was supposed to.
24. "That. Was. Not. A. Good. Film." In response to Reply # 0 Mon Jun-25-18 04:10 PM by Heinz
Fucking horrible.
Nothing was scary. They really tried to channel the old school scary films but IMO it just didn't work. Wasn't wowed by the story. The acting was really good tho. But I thought execution wise as a movie, nah bruh. I'll give it a chance again once it goes digital but that sucked. Wtf were yall watching the same film? Lol
Was hoping the ending there would be a great payoff...shit got comical. The floating and crawling was comical. The 3rd half of this movie turns into the Scary Movie series LOL
I can't fault him cause not everyone is going to think it's scary, plus as I said I was hugely let down by the very end.
But damn. That third act had some of the creepiest stuff I saw in a long time. I was just talking about it the other day with the friend I saw it with. He mentioned how it was so great that when o' girl was just chilling up on the ceiling, you could hear the gasps wave over the audience as people started noticing. I haven't experienced something like that in the theater in a long time.
Frank Longo Member since Nov 18th 2003 86672 posts
Wed Jul-11-18 11:15 AM
34. "Yes. It was scary to me." In response to Reply # 28
My audience had a couple of laughers-- damn near every horror movie does, tbh-- but judging from my own reaction and the fingernail-sized cuts I have in my arm courtesy of my wife, it was still definitely scary to plenty.
32. "In addition to my complaint in #30, " In response to Reply # 0
I think it might have been more satisfying if there were more ambiguity around whether this was just a schizophrenic episode or whether there was clearly supernatural stuff going on.
********** "Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson
Frank Longo Member since Nov 18th 2003 86672 posts
Wed Jul-11-18 11:13 AM
33. "I actually have the opposite complaint. " In response to Reply # 32
Only the rarest of horror movies can effectively pull that off without it seeming like a dodge, because the "it was all in her head!" ending is about as disappointing as a movie's ending can be, so realistically, we know we're either heading for (a) it's real, or (b) a shitty disappointment.
If anything, I thought they were still trying too hard to sell the "is she crazy?" angle even after we already knew she wasn't, that this plot was real. Shit or get off the pot. Or keep the entire movie from her perspective, which I think is the only way the "is she crazy?" angle could've effectively played for the entire film.
Thoroughly enjoyed the movie, just a very minor nitpick that I feel could've improved the execution.
35. "This is what I mean. " In response to Reply # 33
I agree all in her head ending can be cliched, easy to see coming and predictable. I just think it would be new and interesting twist on that if it's arguable that everyone in the family (except the husband) was crazy because schizophrenia runs in their family.
That would have drove home the hereditary theme and not required the movie to be entirely from her perspective. They only blew this as a workable theory by having shots of crazy shit happening not from the point of view of Charlie, the Mom or Peter. That only really happened at the end when the audience could see things like the crazy old people and mom crawling on the wall and peter could not see it. Leave those shot out and it's different movie where we can speculate that the whole family was crazy. I also say leave that shot out because the audience snickered and laugh at them when they saw them.
>Only the rarest of horror movies can effectively pull that >off without it seeming like a dodge, because the "it was all >in her head!" ending is about as disappointing as a movie's >ending can be, so realistically, we know we're either heading >for (a) it's real, or (b) a shitty disappointment. > >If anything, I thought they were still trying too hard to sell >the "is she crazy?" angle even after we already knew she >wasn't, that this plot was real. Shit or get off the pot. Or >keep the entire movie from her perspective, which I think is >the only way the "is she crazy?" angle could've effectively >played for the entire film.
Yeah, it's only a slightly different edited story if only crazy shit happened from the perspective of the mom, daughter and son yet it would have added a whole new meaning to the movie and given us some ambiguity for us to talk about an explore. They were sooo close and it would have neutralized a lot of the hate and criticism in this post.
> >Thoroughly enjoyed the movie, just a very minor nitpick that I >feel could've improved the execution.
********** "Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson
37. "Saw this at a discount theater last Wednesday" In response to Reply # 0
WOW!
I don't watch horror movies (not that this flick really was) but the suspense and tension made this movie one of the best experiences watching a movie that I've had in a long time.
*MINOR SPOILER*
I can't call this scary, but a lot of what happened was really unexpected. From pan in into the miniature which transitioned into the scene beginning in the actual house to Charlie being so weirdly awkward to the Sequence Which Will Stay With Me Forever to what'shername being the psychic and on the direction of the plot shifted quite a bit but the director managed to make the switches seamless and believeable.
* END SPOILERS *
(BTW, the use of jump transitions from scene was amazing. Some of the best ones I've seen.)
The acting throughout was superb. Toni deserves an Oscar. It'll be interesting to see if she actually wins since by and large the Academy doesn't respect horror / suspense / thriller movies.
Peter was great too.
* MINOR SPOILER *
The scene in the car after Charlie died was amazing. Just the way the emotions swung around on his face was remarkable. And his portrayal of a teenager wounded by the event and then the transition into the 'break down' was well done too.
And that scream Toni let out once she found out. Man, I don't know how an actor summons that kind of intensity and complexity, but she's a pro and she obviously proved that here.
* END MINOR SPOILER *
Part of me wishes that the movie had dropped the horror angle and just dealt with the family dynamic. It was so well done to me and it's rare when grief is so drawn in such a raw and brutal way. I liked hearing her go to the support group meeting and seeing how the family just let the grief go unspoken, which seems like it would go in a lot of families. The scene at the dinner table was great too.
The sleepwalking scenes were great too. Especially the one where Toni's character tells Peter he was a mistake. Wow.
I guess the ending didn't bother me. It also didn't stand out. It was if the ending just happened instead of being the apex of the buildup throughout the movie.
I can respect that heads of the genre might take issue with the anti-climatic nature of it. I've never seen Rosemary's Baby but the ending seemed more like a coda. Maybe the movie should have ended ...
42. "Saw this on amazon prime last night (spoilers)" In response to Reply # 0 Sat Jan-12-19 02:41 PM by Pamalama
With 10-15 minutes left in the movie, I told my husband this was the scariest/most tense movie I've seen in along time. However, the ending felt like the son got hold of some bad weed and dreamed the whole thing.
Before that, the movie was so good, it made me overlook some questionable decisions, such as a young child going to a teen party, the son going back to school after he killed his sister, therapy nowhere in sight, etc. I might watch again and just stop it at the window scene like one of the posters alluded to.
The dinner scene and the seance as so well done. And when the son was laying in the bed, just waiting for the parents to discover what happened???? Whew. His eyes barely moved. Don't know if that was editing or acting, but that that was such a good scene.
For the record, I didn't know anything about the movie...just heard it may be a good movie to watch. Going in blind may have helped me like this movie more because I had no expectations.
loved the direction, great acting (the kid who played Charlie is the creepiest movie kid I've seen in a while), loved the plot.
actually took two sittings to finish. Watched and got to THAT SCENE and the aftermath...the cut to the scene of the incident w/the closeup..? Yeah, I was like "that'll be enough of that for tonight", lol Great mix of dread, grief, and empathy for the characters...this is probably the most I've felt for characters in a horror film since maybe Martyrs, and this felt more earned
49. "This movie FUCKED.ME.UP. *spoilers*" In response to Reply # 0
It's been almost two weeks since I saw it, and it's still with me.
Toni Collette was robbed, for real.
And no one has mentioned the dude with the creepy eyes and smile at the grandmother's funeral, who appears later on inside their house just before Toni chases her son up to the attic.
I cannot get his creepy ass face out of my head.
I think I may need therapy. LOL
But overall, all of it was good. The naked old people were creepy AS FUCK. Toni's headless body floating up the treehouse. Charli's decaying head on that pole.
THE MUSIC!!!!! During that scene when Peter climbs into the treehouse (IMO I think he should have floated, would've been more creepy) and that unnerving MUSIC is playing...whew.
56. "as a funny side note" In response to Reply # 51
I saw this twice, once at the theater and once at him with my wife later.
I was really tired that night and somehow I fell asleep around the last half hour, right before the movie went from 0 to bananas. Seriously, I dozed off just before Gabriel Bryne's character dies.
Afterward my wife was pissed off that I dozed off and she had to watch all that crazy shit by herself. I felt bad for her but I also thought it was funny as hell.
52. "Also, I have a question *spoilers*" In response to Reply # 0
Was the father in on it? Was he in the demon cult too? I ask because, when he receives the call early in the movie that Ellen's grave was desecrated, he doesnt' seem to be surprised or shocked.
53. "don't think so imo" In response to Reply # 52 Mon Mar-18-19 10:30 AM by Deebot
He kept it to himself bc he knew his wife was already wigging out/had enough to handle at that point. They also made a point to depict his character as pretty non-excitable and skeptical from the start.
I left the theater thinking Gabriel Byrne's character had the most tragic story arc of anyone in the movie. He was just this tired old dude trying to be a decent father and dad. His whole family is falling apart and he can't fix it and even has to drink and take pills to keep it together. Dude was in way over his head, and on top of all that he gets lit on fire before he even figures out what's going on.
With the cemetery stuff, I assumed that he didn't tell Collette because she was already grieving and he didn't want to trouble her with even more awful shit.
57. "bumping this for people who havent seen it yet" In response to Reply # 0
this was the scariest movie i've ever seen. the last half hour was supremely overwhelming to my senses. The very end was a bit too odd for me to "seriously" accept it, like i had accepted Peter waking up and walking around.
i need to see it again, bc i know the grandmas funeral at the beginning held a lot of secrets
aside from what everyone has said already - what was with the young woman at the open casket touching the grandmothers mouth, and Charlie catching it? I couldnt figure that out.
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