hereditary [2018]

in the history of horror films of the last 100 + years there have been some really fucked up movies.  there are pics that will make you hate humanity, take a shower, & crawl in to your den  & never want to come out. some of these filmmakers, such as ruggero deodato, pier paolo pasolini, lucio fulci, & joe d'amato, to name just a few of the past 50 or so years of cinema, have a blitzkrieged vision of hell that, upon watching them, feels like you've been stomped on & punched in the nose.

filmmaker ari aster, who made last year's horror sensation, hereditary, despite the keenness of his eye, is not one of those directors from hell.  aster crafted an entertaining bit of horror.  there are a few good scares in this pic.  & yet, i felt, even tho i enjoyed the movie, that the narrative fell off the track.  i was warned that the last 20 minutes of this movie will have me gasping for breath.  i was told that this film was one wild, fucked up, ride.

toni collette leads a game cast as the matriarch of a well-to-do family: a father, played by a terrific, yet underused, gabriel byrne, a teenage son & a young 13-year-old daughter.  the movie begins with the death of collette's elderly mother.  the tone is somber.  the family members are polite to each other in their grieving.  yet, something is off.  aster uses ominous sound, always, to amp the dread, to middling effect.  the movie in the first reel is developing into a ghost story.

the first 30 minutes was the best part of the movie.  i watched a scene of such acute anxiety that i held my hands up to my face in horror & dread.  i am an old grizzled veteran of horror so i say in utter humility that it takes a lot for a film to have that effect on me.  well done, ari aster.

& but so, the movie then moves sideways.  without giving much away this film which functioned as an essay on the dynamics of a seemingly normal family that tilted toward the supernatural, instead veered steeply into the you-gotta-be-shitting-me.  does it work?  sort of.  but if you've seen a fair share of horror movies you've seen this trick a few times.

still, i admire aster's attention to detail.  what can i say.  ari aster is a talented filmmaker who i hope hones his craft to a potent edge.  oh i forgot to mention the wonderful ann dowd plays a friend of the grieving collette who is not what she seems to be.  dowd is a very talented actor whose presence elevates even the most coarse material.  this flick is like a ride on a county fair roller coaster, its got some thrills, it can even shock in one, or two, places, but it leaves the real thrill seeker unsatisfied.