A24's HEREDITARY

[norbar]

2 hours ago, Jake Gittes said:

Perhaps it would. I'm not gonna be seeing it again till the home video release, though, since it's only playing here dubbed. Once was enough.

 

I'll go into more detail once the RTM thread is opened so as not to tempt folks with spoilers here but let's just say I didn't feel like the story strands were tied together particularly well in the end. Certainly not as well as in Rosemary's Baby which is a very thematically unified movie. This one changes focus throughout. 

I'd argue this one changes tone not focus. It's still focused on the same and there are little suggestions throughout the movie. Maybe the dubbing hid some of them. 

[Jake Gittes]

45 minutes ago, norbar said:

I'd argue this one changes tone not focus. It's still focused on the same and there are little suggestions throughout the movie. Maybe the dubbing hid some of them. 

The tone I'd say definitely remains the same. Portentous and heavy to the max. Next to no levity. (This tends to frustrate me, actually, and it does here too, though it's not a dealbreaker.) As for the suggestions, yeah I noticed a handful both visual and dropped into dialogue, but I'd still say the movie spends too much time being a family drama before it abruptly lets all hell break loose. 

[JohnnyGossamer]

3 minutes ago, Jake Gittes said:

The tone I'd say definitely remains the same. Portentous and heavy to the max. Next to no levity. (This tends to frustrate me, actually, and it does here too, though it's not a dealbreaker.) As for the suggestions, yeah I noticed a handful both visual and dropped into dialogue, but I'd still say the movie spends too much time being a family drama before it abruptly lets all hell break loose. 

Me too. That's why Rosemary's is legend. Ruth Gordon, her man and their gang bring it on many levels. It's also why The Wailing, while frustratingly purposely confusing, won me over in a big way.

 

 

 

[Jake Gittes]

5 minutes ago, JohnnyGossamer said:

Me too. That's why Rosemary's is legend. Ruth Gordon, her man and their gang bring it on many levels. It's also why The Wailing, while frustratingly purposely confusing, won me over in a big way.

 

 

 

Gordon rules in RB, and the remarkable thing about its ending is that it's openly absurd and horrific and even weirdly touching without any of these things canceling each other out. That's just the highest level. I understand why filmmakers, especially first-timers and especially in horror, choose to stick with one tone - better to reinforce the one thing you know you can do than risk messing up the whole movie - but it takes away from the result. The Witch, which I love, at least found the time for something like the scene of Thomasin and Caleb playing and laughing by the stream, this doesn't even have that - there are moments when you can relax but they are still overwhelmed by a sense of doom. Admittedly there are story reasons for this, but still.

[SLAM!]

I saw a very exciting advertisement for this on YouTube while I was making myself a sandwich. It was simply a thirty-second compilation of relevant interviews at places like The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Good Morning America, where the news station were talking about how "Hereditary is the scariest film in years", and how "it's the next The Exorcist", and how "it cured them of their hiccups and then some". I think that type of advertisement is extremely smart; it expands the hype to the casual demographic, and it offers the film itself as an event to be experienced. That's precisely why Get Out, It, and A Quite Place managed to strike a chord in their theatrical releases -- the factor of togetherness with others. It'll probably be a factor that plays into Hereditary's gross on a smaller scale than the aforementioned films, but I'm sure we're looking at a sleeper hit here. To compare, multiple Paranormal Activity films and the Evil Dead remake all showed footage of people in the theater getting scared by the film, and that certainly didn't hurt their grosses.

[Pure Spirit]

Just saw Rosemary's Baby for the first time. I won't be upset at all if Hereditary manages to be as good as that film. It definitely holds up, I have no nostalgia for that movie. The ending was cheesy but the rest was so good I don't mind.

[filmlover]

BOM confirms this will be opening in 2,964 theaters this weekend, a record for A24.

[JohnnyGossamer]

34 minutes ago, Pure Spirit said:

Just saw Rosemary's Baby for the first time. I won't be upset at all if Hereditary manages to be as good as that film. It definitely holds up, I have no nostalgia for that movie. The ending was cheesy but the rest was so good I don't mind.

[Jake Gittes]

It is kinda cheesy but in a good way! The cheese doesn't take away from how fucked-up the situation is, it only underscores it. 

[Kraken]

I wanted to watch this today but my friend (a lesbian) threatened to gut me if we didn't watch O8. I'll try the weekend.

[Blaze Heatnix]

So, has anybody watched it already?

 

Are general audiences enjoying it? I'm curious.

[Lavochkin]

35 minutes ago, Blaze Heatnix said:

So, has anybody watched it already?

 

Are general audiences enjoying it? I'm curious.

I've seen it. Personally I LOVED it - best horror film in years (will join the ranks alongside It Comes at Night, It Follows and The Witch for me). Most of the crowd around me? Not so much.

 

For the first third, people seemed to get pretty bored quickly. I'll admit it is a slow burn drama for the first section, something that I loved, but I could sense others getting restless (crinkling food wrappers, phone lights, whispering). The film really picked up in the final third, and it seemed people were mostly into it. I think the last part of the film is what people thought the whole movie was going to be. The first part is what makes the last parts so great, but I don't think general audiences either A), anticipated the pace being slow for most of the movie; or B), knew that this would be more of a physiological drama first and supernatural horror second.

 

My friend went to a showing today and he said that two couples left the cinema; one at the half way point, and one about 20mins before the credits (the last couple seemed disgusted by what they saw). Nobody left in my showing, and I think most were pulled in by the end, but I can not see this getting anything more than a B- on CS.

Edited June 8, 2018 by Lavochkin

[Fanboy]

33 minutes ago, Blaze Heatnix said:

So, has anybody watched it already?

 

Are general audiences enjoying it? I'm curious.

It'll probably get around a C CinemaScore. I saw it with 8 other people, most of whom were what you would call a general audience, and they all liked it, but some found it scary and some didn't. There were a lot of "what the fuck?"s from everyone though. There was only two other people in the cinema when I saw it but they left as soon as the credits rolled before I could see their reaction. They were both pretty quiet though. 

Most of the general audience will hate the ending. 

[L Silverman]

Could Hereditary pull the upset and actually beat Deadpool 2 and Solo to come in second?  Right now, Box Office Mojo has Hereditary pegged at $12m for the weekend, Deadpool 2 at $13m and Solo at $14.5m.

[Fanboy]

6 minutes ago, L Silverman said:

Could Hereditary pull the upset and actually beat Deadpool 2 and Solo to come in second?  Right now, Box Office Mojo has Hereditary pegged at $12m for the weekend, Deadpool 2 at $13m and Solo at $14.5m.

It's possible but if word of mouth is bad enough it might hurt its Saturday and Sunday gross. 

[tonytr87]

23 minutes ago, Fanboy said:

It'll probably get around a C CinemaScore. I saw it with 8 other people, most of whom were what you would call a general audience, and they all liked it, but some found it scary and some didn't. There were a lot of "what the fuck?"s from everyone though. There was only two other people in the cinema when I saw it but they left as soon as the credits rolled before I could see their reaction. They were both pretty quiet though. 

Most of the general audience will hate the ending. 

 

Why are horror movie auds so predictably dumb/close-minded? 

[Ezen Baklattan]

Well that was a trip.....but a good one.

 

Still gonna need some time to process.

[Lavochkin]

3 minutes ago, tonytr87 said:

 

Why are horror movie auds so predictably dumb/close-minded? 

It's not their fault, it's the dumb and close-minded blockbuster horror films that are pumped out at lightspeed for casual audiences to consume. I'm talking about the 'Truth or Dare's, the 'Satanic's or the Insidious 32 or whatever we are at now.

 

When you see enough of the same thing, anything different becomes too foreign to accept, therefore you see causal audiences rejecting a lot of the more art-house, indie, or just plain different horror films.

 

I used to be a casual viewer. Eventually I expanded out but i'll admit it is hard to watch some different films. You become so used to seeing one particular style or tone, that when something that is on the other end of the spectrum comes along, you don't really know what to do with it.. and for most people that means dismissing it without giving it any though - so the cycle beings.

[Fanboy]

4 minutes ago, tonytr87 said:

 

Why are horror movie auds so predictably dumb/close-minded? 

I wouldn't say it's limited to horror audiences. If you have something disturbing and weird that makes people uncomfortable it's naturally going to get a lot of detractors. I think when people go watch a movie they expect to be entertained, have a nice, clean easy story they don't have to think about too much, and have a satisfying pay off for every character and storyline that wraps everything up perfectly. Basically every movie that doesn't follow those rules gets mixed reception from moviegoers. 

[Blaze Heatnix]

First 3 Audience Reactions from Rotten Tomatoes:

 

 1) I was so pumped to see this movie but was sadly let down. I was really hoping for a jumping off your seat horror. The movie took off slowly, setting the scene for the first hour. Then I thought buckle up here we go, but it was a false alarm. The last 1/2 hour of the movie seemed to have completely lost it, it skipped trying to be a scary movie and just went straight to ridiculous... all the actors did a great job though, the writers could have done far more with the story line creating more suspense, thrill, surprise and fear.. most of the movie theatre goers were laughing, as we were

 

 

2) Talk about dragging and drawn out, we were both so let down, if this was the scariest movie ever I'll eat my own fat arse on toast. Couldn't scare a goddam chook.
The actors were all ugly the acting was SHYTE, the story was boring and a waste of my hard earned $67.
Never again will I believe anyone when they tell me a movie is really scary ever again. 

HINT DON'T BOTHER

 

 

 

3) I think Joni Mitchelle deserves a public apology for her brilliant song being at the end of such a TERRIBLE MOVIE. Please someone explain to me how this was a solid plot at all. I feel bad for the actors, I hope y'all got PAID .... was I drunk when I saw this? Who is paying you to give it 95? Listen, you can pay me too.... I'm not above it. Pay me, and with the money, I'll make my own movie. I have indigestion now