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Posted by: HausofTroye 2nd June 2018, 03:06 PM

This is getting fantastic reviews across the board and is being hyped up massively.

Out in a few weeks, it's supposed to be a modern day 'The Exorcist' with very real, familial terror. Trailer looks promising.

Will definitely watch!

Posted by: UltraReputation 2nd June 2018, 03:12 PM

My most hyped film atm. I'm SO ready for this and I'd love Toni to get an Oscar nom for this.

Posted by: Chez Wombat 2nd June 2018, 03:25 PM

The comparisons to all these classic horror films in the reviews are really making me interested. I'm definitely gonna check this out, there's a lot going on in the trailer, I can't really guess anything but that's for the best ofc.!

Posted by: Jack 2nd June 2018, 03:45 PM

I hate overhyped films, they usually turn out to be shit - I mean just look at last years Blair Witch! Hopefully this does turn out to be good though.

Posted by: BridgeCow 15th June 2018, 05:59 PM

omfg this was Amazing completely lived up to the hype for me. This is one of the most disturbing, gut-wrenching films I've seen in so so long. It is a very slow burn but MAN does it pay off. Definitely agree with The Exorcist comparisons tbh, and that 'twist' is straight from Rosemary's Baby . It's such a heavy movie, with so many completely haunting moments that have stuck with me so much, like the scene where the mother finds Charlie's body in the car, and it's focused on Peter's face with the harrowing screams in the background really hit me. It made my heart physically hurt and that pain was just so so real. Also, the scene just after where she's crying on the floor screaming 'I Just Wanna Die', it's so incredibly haunting and really left me feeling horrible. Toni Collette and Alex Wolfe's performances are just so incredible, the sheer emotion they manage to portray in scenes (specifically when Peter is sitting in the car, just after Charlie's death, just sitting in silence unable to speak, the whole scene is just so enveloped in deep emotion, it's incredible). It's such a deep film, all the nods throughout towards the ending (like Annie saying how all of the faces were unfamiliar at the funeral, because they were the cult members, or the grandma wishing Charlie was a boy etc...) give this film so many layers that I just can't wait to rewatch this from a different perspective. The movie just manages to feel so f***ing real, which just elevates this to another level, I could go on about this movie for hours . 100% recommend this. and go in as blind as you possibly can. But beware it truly is terrifying and disturbing, so maybe not for the more sensitive out there. That image of Charlie's rotting decapitated head by the side of the road will really stick with me forever

Posted by: HausofTove 15th June 2018, 10:43 PM

^ ALL.

I am an intense and hugely biased horror film fanatic. So I do not say this lightly: this will 100% go down as a horror classic. It feels straight out of the 70s. A successor to Rosemary's Baby and a worthy one at that.

Honestly, the build up was expertly done. Having the traditional young girl as demonic creature then subverted and twisted the way it was in *THAT CAR* scene was genius and from there it was relentlessly terrifying. The gradual mental breakdown of Peter was both fascinating and horrifying and the way the director combined mental health with the demonic was perfect.

I actually had tears at several moments too. The emotional impact MY GOD.

The musical score was incredible and added to the overall horror. The performances were easily award winning worthy (SURELY this is the film to break the curse horror films have with the Academy???).

What a brilliant well done film. The director is clearly a horror fanatic and knows his craft and the history of the genre because the references were subtle, but expertly woven into the film.

I honestly, in time and with repeated viewings, will probably consider this to be up there with the likes of The Omen, Rosemary's Baby and Don't Look Now in terms of horror masterpieces.

I will probably return here once the dust has settled.
10/10.

Posted by: HausofTove 15th June 2018, 10:56 PM

If you are even the slightest fan of the horror genre, please see this. Whether you eventually enjoy it or now, it's essential viewing regardless.

Posted by: Jonjo 15th June 2018, 11:29 PM

!!

Im avoiding your spoiler tagged parts, but oh my!!

Seeing it on Monday and I'm really excited for it!

Posted by: Jack 16th June 2018, 03:51 PM

Absolutely stunning film. Agree with everything Bal said, so gut wrenching and full of moments that I didn't see coming at all. Had a very similar tone to The Babadook.

Posted by: Joe. 16th June 2018, 05:36 PM

I thought this was very good, though not perfect. It was really well shot and brilliantly acted (TC should get some Oscar glory for this!) with a genuine sense of dread throughout.

I loved the tone, there were lots of finite little details, reminiscent of the charm of some of the 70s or late 60s’ best horror(Although some of the effects were slightly cheaper, like the specs of light I felt didn’t fit the film properly) . My main issue was that it all felt a little too familiar, there wasn’t much I felt I had not seen before and given the huge praise I thought we’d get something slightly more unique. Maybe because I’ve seen and studied a lot of horror films over the years but I don’t get how people didn’t guess what was going to happen at the end. The daughter dying so early on was a genuine shock, given how prominent she was in the promo. But the old lady had a carved triangle in the floor of her room. She obviously worshipped some kind of evil deity, and when Ann Dowd's character showed up, the jig was up, it was clear what was coming. That’s not to say that it wasn’t still very well made slice of horror - the final scene especially was masterfully done, the way Aster carefully carved out every second in those final moments made for something truly chilling.

A very solid 4/5, easily one of the best horrors of the past few years.

Posted by: BridgeCow 16th June 2018, 07:56 PM

I legit haven't stopped thinking about this film all day tho omg

Posted by: Joe. 16th June 2018, 09:10 PM

Also I kept thinking Alyssa Edwards was going to come creeping out of the shadows.

Posted by: Harve 17th June 2018, 12:29 AM

Mostly in agreement with Joe - it looked stunning and the acting was excellent.

It did feel quite muddled. I mostly like drama films, and so I would've liked the supernatural elements to simply be a hallucination that forms part of the mental illness narrative, but these two themes kinda clashed with each other.

Posted by: HausofTove 17th June 2018, 09:26 AM

What's to say it wasn't in Annie's imagination? The film started with a zoom into her micro-house model. Was the entire film her imagination? A world she had created through her art?

Her dream within a dream when she saw the insects also alludes to the fact that reality and imagination was blurred. In my opinion it explored mental illness brilliantly because viewers had no idea what was real and was was imagination or a dream and I totally got how lost she was a mother through this.

Posted by: Harve 17th June 2018, 08:30 PM

(not using spoiler tags because my entire post is a spoiler)

It didn't have enough framing for it to be clear that there was an unreliable narrator compared to, say, Shutter Island (or Switchblade Romance, to cite another horror film). Not to mention that the film wasn't told entirely from Annie's perspective - for me you need to have a single protagonist for the figment of imagination idea to work.

One of the best things about the film was indeed that you didn't know what was real and what was imaginary, but the ending was disappointing in that respect because it only delved deeper into the supposed hallucinations rather than offering an explanation, ambiguous or not, to the supernatural occurrences, as the above two films do.

Posted by: Joe. 17th June 2018, 09:07 PM

Yeah; for me too much was told from Peter’s perspective for it to work as a film with a double meaning like that, which is why I wasn’t trying to work out what the meaning behind starting the film inside the doll’s house was.

Posted by: HausofTove 17th June 2018, 09:17 PM

The ending was so taken from the melodramatic endings that classic horrors used to do so well. There didn't need to be an explanation, more outward chaos opening fully and forever present after the credits closed. No answers, no redemption just chaos. Think Rosemary's Baby, Wicker Man etc.

Also films to watch if you enjoyed this: https://filmschoolrejects.com/movies-to-watch-hereditary/

Posted by: Jonjo 19th June 2018, 10:21 AM

Taken from my letterboxd account.

"Found this quite boring in parts, but it had some creepy moments. The last 10 mins or so completely kill the film dead though.

Not sure if I'd ever likely watch it again, but watching the one time was decent enough, even if it was slow and boring.

Toni Collette thoughhhhh... what a phenomenal actress. She's fantastic in everything.

Decent, but not great. Really overrated for the most part."

And I rated it, 3/5 (so about 7/10)

So when I say "the last 10 mins or so" I mean from the moment Toni's body started floating up into the treehouse pretty much. I feel like that sort of ending gets done way too much and it's never really been a fave thing of mine.

Posted by: Chez Wombat 20th June 2018, 05:53 PM

Just got back from this and YES, this is definitely what the horror genre needed, feels like one that will transcend boundaries for the genre as while the horror elements were extremely disturbing, it clearly had aspects of an intense family drama in there too which made it seem very authentic and fresh. It was a great fresh take on the child possession storyline as well, for one that there wasn't a bloody jump scare and overdone 'creeping around in the dark' scenes taking up the whole movie and you'd think from the trailers that Charliw would be the focus, so it genuinely caught me off guard she was killed so early on, and the focus on the impact on the family was great

The ending definitely harkened back to Rosemary's Baby, the only question I had was I was wondering about the role that Charlie played in the whole thing, especially as it was Peter that the demon was seemingly always after? I understood her death made him more 'vulnerable' but then it was her spirit that was so prominent and seeing her grandmother, I actually thought the mother was already possessed as well what with the art sculpture and everything. That seemed super creepy

Wonderful stuff though, definitely understand the praise it's getting and for sure a future horror classic. Would be brilliant if this got some awards attention like Get out did.

Posted by: Joe. 20th June 2018, 06:55 PM

Word of mouth is really bad for this and I don’t really understand why? Even though I had some slight issues with the plot it’s still surely an easily enjoyable film to me? I was entertained throughout so i don’t get why it’s getting so many ‘boring’ and ‘overlong’ critiques. It could have been 10 minutes shorter maybe but I don’t really know what I’d get rid of? I’d happily watch a longer directors cut...

Posted by: HausofTove 20th June 2018, 07:14 PM

All the classic horrors were disliked upon release - the difference here is, the critics LOVE it. People will appreciate it over time, i'm very confident on that. It perfectly fits into the horror film landscape, through being expertly retro but for a modern audience (who might not fully understand its references).

Glad you enjoyed it C-W, highly suspected you would !!

Posted by: BridgeCow 20th June 2018, 07:33 PM

Yeah this for sure is just a case of slight mismarketing or whatever, the ads seem to paint this as very different movie to what it actually is, and I know a few of my friends pretty much wrote it off because of that :/

Posted by: Chez Wombat 20th June 2018, 08:34 PM

It's probably a case of too much hype, I mean being called this generation's The Exorcist is quite a lot to live up to, but I sense it won't harm it in the long run. Still, it's annoying that literally any film that gets a lot of hype these days seemingly HAS to get some form of backlash. I wish people would just judge something on it's own merits and not overexaggerate simply because they didn't get the hype. Like it's OK to be underwhelmed, but going as far as hating it purely because of that is pack mentality and too strong, these petty 1 star ratings you see on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes to bring it's score down annoy me a lot.

Posted by: Joe. 20th June 2018, 09:50 PM

^ *nods*

I hate when something is called ‘this generation’s...’ that kind of status is earned over time. Not after being In the cinema for a week.

Going to see this a again next week so I can concentrated more on the finer details.

Posted by: Jack 20th June 2018, 10:17 PM

Marketing for horror films has been so over the top lately - Ghost Stories had 'the best British horror film in years' and (imo) it was shite! Blair Witch had over the top reviews as well and that was terrible also.

This was actually good but horror films do tend to get really over hyped and a lot of hyperbole thrown at them to get people to watch them when it isn't really necessary.

Posted by: Joe. 20th June 2018, 10:23 PM

It’s true; but there’s so many bad horror films these days I guess they need to stand out in marketing as actually decent so people go see it. It’s backfired somewhat with this one as people are going around saying it’s overhyped. It worked for Get Out and IT though, box of which did really well!

Posted by: Jonjo 21st June 2018, 12:08 AM

Are these comments a dig/shade at me coz I said it was slow and boring?

To me, it was slow and it was boring for a lot of it and it just felt like a glorified, indie/arty horror. Trust me, it bugs me more than you guys know that I didn't enjoy this as much as you guys did. I HATE being the one not to get the hype. But it really didn't grab my interest much at all until the neck snap and from that point my interest was in and out a lot. I liked it and didn't dislike it. I feel a similar way about this as I did with 'The VVitch'. I just wish I could have enjoyed it more because I adore the horror genre so much (as y'all should know already lmao) but not that it was particularly hard to grasp, it just wasn't grabbing my attention much throughout.

I will say though that the clicking sound goes through me now and Toni's crying and screeching after finding out about that scene was chilling and so wonderfully done/one of my favourite horror moments of the last few years.

Posted by: Cremey 23rd June 2018, 08:49 AM

Wasn’t a big fan of this, but that might be partly down to thinking it would be something it’s not.
I thought it would be a lot more terrifying (I’d seen things about it being the ‘scariest film in years’...etc, which it’s just not.)

Was expecting it to be a lot more unique, I feel like so much of it has been done before so it’s not really that shocking or disturbing any more? Having said that, there were parts I absolutely loved and the quality of the score and cinematography can’t be denied.