Thursday 21 June 2018

Film: 'Hereditary'

I'd had serious doubts of whether I ought to subject myself to this, regarded by some as the new 'Exorcist' - and that latter film had scared the bejesus out of me back in 1973. In the event, concern was needless as I didn't find 'Hereditary' anything like as special as some have claimed it is. I'm not expecting to have difficulty in sleeping tonight, which I absolutely did have after the earlier release.  

This is very much a film of two halves, the first hour I found pretty good, even very. Adroitly managed restraint is always more effective than going hell-for-leather with special effects. When everything starts getting thrown in, as though the idea is that the more one is shown the more one will be frightened out of one's wits (always indicating desperation, to my mind) it rapidly undoes the positives of what had gone before. I even found myself having to stifle a smile at the daftness of it all.

Toni Collette dominates the film as a dolls-house creator and mother in a family of four, with taciturn hubby (Gabriel Byrne) and their two teenage children (Alex Wolff and Milly Shapiro). There are already simmering tensions in the family but when an horrific accident happens, the effect on her life in particular allows her to act as progressively more and more unhinged, particularly after she meets an older woman (Ann Dowd) who's suffered a bereavement and has experienced contact with 'the other side'.
Incidentally, the family has a pet dog (something which always makes me extra nervous) but as the story advances the dog becomes less and less in evidence until it seems to be just written out of the story with no explanation. I'm not complaining.

That first half which I'd admired so much was skilfully manouevre'd, the suspense before anything had even happened being underlined by a most effective soundtrack score of a bass hum or a low throbbing sound. Shame that the expertly built-up tension is not sustained and as more and more is revealed the plot and its on-screen manifestation gets too haywire for words - until, (spoiler alert for what's coming up! - or jump to next para) as a crowning glory, and a hopeless error made in attempting to put some rationale under the happenings by giving it a mumbo-jumbo conclusion relating to Egyptian(?) mythic history - at least I think that was what it was supposed to be. 

It really was a grave mistake to try to explain what it was all about. Would have been immeasurably better to have left it open. We're not so stupid as to be taken in by a fiction of cod-reasoning which, instead of clarifying, succeeds only in obfuscating matters. Dear me!   

Apparently this is Ari Aster's first full-length feature as director. The first hour or so indicates that he does demonstrate some promise. If only he becomes aware of when to rein himself in he may well have better things ahead.
Toni Collette gives the film her all, and there's an awful lot of 'all' in it. I can't deny there was an element of fun in seeing her completely lose her marbles. As for the remainder of the second half, no thanks............5.

(IMDb.........7.8 / Rotten Tomatoes............8.2)

10 comments:

  1. Interesting. I had already decided I couldn't see the film, much as I really want to see it, for reasons you will already know about me but I am surprised it has not lived up to all the glowing reviews I have read. I have hardly found one that does not give it 5 stars out of 5 and emphasising the fear and scary side of it. I will take your word for it but it will still be out of bounds for me, regrettably.

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    1. Most reviews have indeed been super-pro, Rachel, and I only wish I agreed. I think it plays better for those who weren't brought up on a film fayre of contrived shocks and grisly happenings. Those of us who know the formula only too well will have a sense of having seen it all before. I wouldn't worry too much about your missing it even though I can well understand your curiosity - the same as was the deciding factor in making me chance seeing it.

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  2. I had some friends see it and said it was very scary good.
    Now I'm wondering .....

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    1. I only marvel that your pals who liked it didn't have that deja vu feeling, Bob - and didn't they find it came so close to being comical when horror was being piled on horror beyond plausibility, reaching breaking point so that there was only reasonable reaction? i.e. to laugh? Maybe you're one of those who will like it. For me the scariest things are when much is left unsaid and not graphically depicted on screen. To tell you where I'm coming from I'll say that two films of not-so-long-ago which gave me chills were 'Blair Witch' and the first 'Paranormal Activities' seeing both on the cinema screen. Now just about everybody has seen them at least on DVD and are wondering what the fuss was about but, goodness me, they did both give me the willies!

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  3. Ray,
    I was curious about your take on this film. I've heard that it is the "scariest movie of the year" which immediately makes me suspect. I'm glad the dog doesn't meet a grisly end though. I'm always suspicious when animals (dog and cats) are introduced in the story line because almost always, in fact always, they end up dead. Hollywood script writers, so obvious.
    I have to catch up on your other reviews!
    Ron

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    1. I hate it when family pets feature, Ron, as it's always a device to involve those audience members concerned for its fate. However, I've seen a number of films where the animal just mysteriously stops appearing in the story for no apparent reason at all - so why put it in in the first place?

      There's been a lot of hyperbole attached to this film and a lot of those who've ventured forth agree to see for themselves feel that it justifies the claims made for it. We had a glut of these 'possession' and ghost films in the wake of 'The Exorcist' in the 70s - and, in my view, this film would have made a pretty standard contribution to the genre then, certainly nothing out of the ordinary.

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  4. I am glad that you went, and I agree with everything you have said about it. We actually laughed at the ending - the bit with the cheesewire finished off any credibility the film had for us. I lost the plot and had tears of laughter running down my face, and yet the rest of the audience sat there po faced!?

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    1. I find your reaction reassuring, Debdor. Although we're not alone in dismissing it we appear to be in a clear minority. Subtle it was not - though the first half did have some menacing undertones which, in nervous apprehension of what might follow, I found most effective. But then when things began to really happen the director unaccountably decided that you if he throws everything at the screen, including the kitchen sink, then the audience will be correspondingly scared out of their wits. Doesn't work like that. Think 'LESS IS MORE'!
      As for that codswallop attempt to tie it all together by 'revealing' what was the cause of it - oh, sweet Heaven!

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  5. I loved me some Toni Collette (Murial’s Wedding, 6th Sense, Connie & Carla) but I don’t do horror films, so I’ll have to sit this one out :-(

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    1. I like her enormously as well, S/b, and here is something for her to really sink her teeth into. Tragic that it comes out as over-melodramatic tosh (and that's putting it mildly!).

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