Just got back from the experience myself. The audience I was with, unfortunately, found every scene where the son was, err, reacting, to be comedy gold.
I had these two younger girls next to me and they laughed at most of the scenes up until after the big twist. Then everyone was silent as a grave. Until I couldn’t keep myself from saying “what the fuck” and “oh shiiiit” because of what I saw lol
Yeah, had some chucklers in my theater as well, but I think it was more nervous laughter than anything else. I heard them say it was creepy as they walked out, but they didn't like the ending. Honestly I thought I was going to have the theater to myself, so I was happy to see other people there. Kind of. I liked it. I think I liked it a lot. I will be watching it again for sure. It definitely did scary they way I like scary. No jump scares, although a couple well-timed clucks startled me, but lots and lots of, "What the fuck is that in the corner???" stuff which I love! Two things kinda bugged me, the fact that some dialogue is different in the trailer than in the movie, and the way it's different is pretty much a spoiler. Don't know if this was a matter of a reshoot, or if they just shot two different versions of the scene, but it seemed strange. Also, Spoiler who the fuck bakes a cake at a rager??? And there was a weird little bit of ADR where a word was changed, which I think lead to a scene being changed later in the movie. These are minor things, because ultimately this was pretty much right in my horror wheelhouse. It looked great, the sound was amazing, and the acting was wonderful. And although I had a certain feeling the movie was going to be about Spoiler a cult of some sort based on the trailer, I was so happy to be right. It's one of my favorite horror subgenres. For a slow burn, fairly long movie I was drawn in the whole time. Looked at my watch once and was surprised that an hour and a half had already gone by. This is one that you keep thinking about, which means it wormed it's way into your brain, which means it was better than most of the trash out there. That's always a good thing.
Catching it again tomorrow with a friend who has not seen it. More nervous laughter than anything when I saw it the first time. The theater's blood ran cold a few times for sure. I really liked the way everyone played their part. I got the sense that most people who saw it on that opening night enjoyed it. Slow-burn...yes, maybe. I wasn't bored at all. Cool story, I think.
Was talking about Hereditary with my family during father's day activities and my niece said that everyone she knows who saw it has had a pretty strong reaction. One girl apparently cried, a guy who's way into horror movies said it devastated him, and so on. I was so happy to hear all of this!!
I was very impressed with Hereditary- haven't had a new movie give me a scare like that in a while. Spoiler I really enjoyed the subtle clues throughout the film that just come together at different spots of the film (i.e. smiling man at the funeral, symbol on the pole, etc.) The shot of the little girl's severed head in the road was so jarring! People have been calling this "our generations The Exorcist" and I would say that's a fair statement.. honestly the first time i've wanted a movie to just stop because of how scared I was.
Going to see it again tonight with some friends. Looking forward to really sitting back and soaking it all in now that I've got one viewing under my belt.
The downside of using Movie Pass is I'm not able to see it again. But I was thinking of buying myself a ticket to Book Club and heading on over to Hereditary. It definitely worth a second pass in the theater.
Hereditary is a masterpiece. Looking forward to a second viewing to catch all those clues and (not really hidden) hints at was was going on. We caught the obvious ones but I guess there is more and we have not pieced everything together though I guess not everything is explained and some things just happened without explanation (like, how does Annie get into the attic). Anyway, the movie still lingers in my head and I cannot remember when a movie did that to me lately. We are still talking about it at home and it has been almost a week. I rarely have been so impressed with the sound in a movie theater. I also felt that they spent a lot of work to make everything in the house look like it could as well be one of the miniatures (giant electric piano next to tiny wardrobe in the Peter's room, the portholes next to the parent's bed not ligning up perfectly etc.) - tiny things, great effect.
Just finishing up My Friend Dahmer and I think I'm a fan of this Alex Wolff kid now. He's really great in this and Hereditary. Although Dahmer isn't really horror, it is definitely super creepy seeing the slow unfolding of his psyche.
It got repetitive after a bit. It was scene upon scene of school, home, woods, school, home, woods. But I have a slight fascination with Dahmer and that Disney kid did a pretty good job of being weird so I know I'll watch it again.
I’ve got an overall fascination with serial killers, certain ones in particular. Most movies or “biopics” of them are pretty decent(Gacy, Helter Skelter 2004, Monster, Son of Sam), but I heard My Friend Dahmer just about fails on every front, sans the kid who actually plays Dahmer. I’m still pretty weary of taking the time to watch it, but I might crack.
Well, it's pre-serial killer Dahmer so maybe people are not as interested in that. I always find the, "how did he end up like that," parts of serial killer stories pretty fascinating. The movie reminded me more of something like I Am Not a Serial Killer or Super Dark Times, than say Helter Skelter Dahmer was so forthcoming after he was captured and really never made excuses for himself, and I'm not trying to make him a sympathetic figure here by any means, but he wasn't slimy and evasive about his crimes the way Bundy was in his last interviews. He pretty much owned up to what he did, was honest about how he viewed his victims, and never placed blame on anyone but himself. I don't think he was in any way remorseful, but I always found his honesty interesting.
I watched that last year and I was thoroughly disturbed by how much of the dialogue I had memorized. And I hadn't watched it in probably 20 years or more. I had it on VHS back in the day and apparently watched it many, many times.
Finally saw Hereditary yesterday. Had been dodging spoilers for almost a month now. Glad I went it spoiler free. Having read on it would have definitely been a different experience for sure. All i have to say is, that was a fucked up move. (but it was great!)
This will be a bit of a long post but totally worth it. The Endless is a new horror/sci-fi flick that I just saw and I absolutely loved it. Great acting and cinematography and it builds it's creepy atmosphere so slowly and perfectly. Without giving anything away I can honestly say for a no budget flick with the writers/directors playing the main leads it was brilliant. The same guys made a movie 4 or 5 years ago called Resolution that I enjoyed quite a bit as well. It was about a guy trying to get his best friend clean by chaining him up in a cabin in the middle of nowhere to force him to stop taking drugs. It was funny and turned creepy and really surreal by the end. If you've seen this movie you will get a huge kick out of a certain part of The Endless that anyone watching who hasn't seen Resolution won't really understand. It's in no way mandatory to watch one and then the other but it would be much more satisfying. I rarely use rotten tomatoes for anything but I was trying to find the name of the movie from a few years back and Resolution is still at 100% with 10 reviews while The Endless is at 97% with about 100 reviews. Which is kind of crazy since RT always shits on no budget horror and sci-fi.
Have heard really good things about it. I wasn't a big fan of Resolution, but it was interesting enough for me to give these guys another go.