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[SXSW Review] ‘Hereditary’ is Perfect, Dangerous, Anxiety-Inducing Filmmaking

Published

6 years ago

March 15, 2018

From the very second Hereditary begins, you know that you’re in for something different. A slow zoom into a lifelike dollhouse that shifts into an actual house is acutely aware of itself, you are being pulled in to something unsafe. It’s a visual riptide that is about to pull you out to a very unsympathetic, dark sea.

The story follows the Graham family, who is dealing with the recent loss of the family’s matriarch. Not long after the funeral, the family begins to find that the roots of their ancestry may have some terrifying ties.

Hereditary is a strategic assault on its audience. The Graham family’s home is a heightened reality dollhouse, it constantly feels off kilter with certain furnishings with skewed heights or dimensions creating a small piece of the uncomfortable other worldliness that is already working on your viewing psyche. The sound design is a constant binaural pulse that is played almost throughout the first act of the film. Those two elements together are already subliminally accosting you, before the horror elements have even been introduced.

What really blows my mind is that this is director, Ari Aster’s first feature. This dude must have lived many lives as a director previously cause, he is resolute in his filmmaking. Hereditary is dangerous anxiety inducing filmmaking, Aster creates a new, raw and terrifying path for the horror genre.

The film could exist entirely as a family drama and it would have been absorbing. Aster takes care to make the drama elements work, while gradually introducing the creeping dread. A lot like placing a frog in a pot with the temperature slowly rising, you are already being cooked in a substantial amount of resonating horrific imagery and ideas.

I’m a fan of a lot of A24 horror. Atmospheric genre films like The Witch are my specific cup of tea. Hereditary takes the atmospheric elements and adds gravity to them by delivering on the spectrum of what horror audiences love (yes, even some extremely effective jump scares) creating a film that feels like it could bridge the gap of atmospheric slow burn fans and more mainstream horror audiences.

The imagery cut in in the film seriously gets stuck in your head. I’m still thinking about it now. There is a lot of narrative plays that are really smart about crafting the experience to leave you with not only some seriously fucked up imagery but material you may want to go home and research.

The cast in is pure greatness. Toni Collette and each member of her family take you by the hand down familiar, familial paths before leaving you lost alone and without a compass in the dark family narrative. Collette’s grief and character big reveals work terrifyingly organic and grounded.

“Hereditary is dangerous anxiety inducing filmmaking, Aster creates a new, raw and terrifying path for the horror genre.”

Hereditary is seriously an achievement for horror in every way. It does some unflinching things with the process of grief and family dynamics and then inverts them in an almost perverse way. It’s a mean-spirited movie, its goal is to fuck you up and it entirely worked on me. From where I’m sitting, there is no way that this film doesn’t end up on my top 5 list at the end of the year. This film is dangerous and I can’t wait to experience it again.

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Related Topics:A24 Hereditary SXSW Trey Hilburn

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Netflix Releases First BTS ‘Fear Street: Prom Queen’ Footage

Published

19 hours ago

April 30, 2024

Timothy Rawles

It’s been three long years since Netflix unleashed the bloody, but enjoyable Fear Street on its platform. Released in a tryptic fashion, the streamer broke up the story into three episodes, each taking place in a different decade which by the finale were all tied together.

Now, the streamer is in production for its sequel Fear Street: Prom Queen which brings the story into the 80s. Netflix gives a synopsis of what to expect from Prom Queen on their blog site Tudum:

“Welcome back to Shadyside. In this next installment of the blood-soaked Fear Street franchise, prom season at Shadyside High is underway and the school’s wolfpack of It Girls is busy with its usual sweet and vicious campaigns for the crown. But when a gutsy outsider is unexpectedly nominated to the court, and the other girls start mysteriously disappearing, the class of ’88 is suddenly in for one hell of a prom night.”

Based on R.L. Stine’s massive series of Fear Street novels and spin-offs, this chapter is number 15 in the series and was published in 1992.

FEAR STREET: PROM QUEEN IS NOW IN PRODUCTION 🩸 Welcome to Shadyside High. We're gonna have a killer time. pic.twitter.com/jDl0zRa2CH
— Netflix (@netflix) April 30, 2024

Fear Street: Prom Queen features a killer ensemble cast, including India Fowler (The Nevers, Insomnia), Suzanna Son (Red Rocket, The Idol), Fina Strazza (Paper Girls, Above the Shadows), David Iacono (The Summer I Turned Pretty, Cinnamon), Ella Rubin (The Idea of You), Chris Klein (Sweet Magnolias, American Pie), Lili Taylor (Outer Range, Manhunt) and Katherine Waterston (The End We Start From, Perry Mason).

No word on when Netflix will drop the series into its catalog.

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News

Live Action Scooby-Doo Reboot Series In Works at Netflix

Published

20 hours ago

April 30, 2024

Timothy Rawles

The ghosthunting Great Dane with an anxiety problem, Scooby-Doo, is getting a reboot and Netflix is picking up the tab. Variety is reporting that the iconic show is becoming an hour-long series for the streamer although no details have been confirmed. In fact, Netflix execs declined to comment.

If the project is a go, this would be the first live-action movie based on the Hanna-Barbera cartoon since 2018’s Daphne & Velma. Before that, there were two theatrical live-action movies, Scooby-Doo (2002) and Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004), then two sequels that premiered on The Cartoon Network.

Currently, the adult-oriented Velma is streaming on Max.

Scooby-Doo originated in 1969 under the creative team Hanna-Barbera. The cartoon follows a group of teenagers who investigate supernatural happenings. Known as Mystery Inc., the crew consists of Fred Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley, and Shaggy Rogers, and his best friend, a talking dog named Scooby-Doo.

Normally the episodes revealed the hauntings they encountered were hoaxes developed by land-owners or other nefarious characters hoping to scare people away from their properties. The original TV series named Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! ran from 1969 to 1986. It was so successful that movie stars and pop culture icons would make guest appearances as themselves in the series.

Celebrities such as Sonny & Cher, KISS, Don Knotts, and The Harlem Globetrotters made cameos as did Vincent Price who portrayed Vincent Van Ghoul in a few episodes.

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News

BET Releasing New Original Thriller: The Deadly Getaway

Published

20 hours ago

April 30, 2024

Cameron McFarland

BET will soon be offering horror fans a rare treat. The studio has announced the official release date for their new original thriller, The Deadly Getaway. Directed by Charles Long (The Trophy Wife), this thriller sets up a heart racing game of cat and mouse for audiences to sink their teeth into.

Wanting to break up the monotony of their routine, Hope and Jacob set off to spend their vacation at a simple cabin in the woods. However, things go sideways when Hope’s ex-boyfriend shows up with a new girl at the same campsite. Things soon spiral out of control. Hope and Jacob must now work together to escape the woods with their lives.

The Deadly Getaway is written by Eric Dickens (Makeup X Breakup) and Chad Quinn (Reflections of US). The Film stars, Yandy Smith-Harris (Two Days in Harlem), Jason Weaver (The Jacksons: An American Dream), and Jeff Logan (My Valentine Wedding).

Showrunner Tressa Azarel Smallwood had the following to say about the project. “The Deadly Getaway is the perfect reintroduction to classic thrillers, which encompass dramatic twists, and spine-chilling moments. It showcases the range and diversity of emerging Black writers across genres of film and television.”

The Deadly Getaway will premiere on 5.9.2024, exclusively ion BET+.