Podcasts
The ‘Hereditary’ Blu-ray Doesn’t Include the Director’s Commentary We Were Craving But Here’s the Next Best Thing
Who is Ari Aster? That’s what I wanted to know after seeing the first-time filmmaker’s horror masterpiece Hereditary, which is now available for purchase on VOD platforms with a 4K, Blu-ray and DVD release slated for September 4th. Included on the releases are the featurette “Cursed: The True Nature of Hereditary” and an “Evil in Miniature” photo gallery. Shockingly missing is a commentary track. Typically, this isn’t a big deal, but we’re discussing the most talked-about horror film of the year from a first time director who we all know nothing about. For such hype behind a release, it’s a catastrophe that they chose to exclude a commentary track from Aster.
Being irate on Twitter, a reader pointed me to something that’s a little better than nothing – Aster’s interview with horror director Mick Garris on his wonderful “Post Mortem” podcast. While you won’t hear Aster breaking down his mind-blowing shots, he does talk a little about his process that should act as a lesson to all aspiring filmmakers. He goes into detail about his over-preparation that’s so precise that it restricts his actor’s ability to “bring their own” to the performance. It’s such a titillating moment in the interview because it’s Aster being humble, and acknowledging something that’s both his blessing and curse to deal with – something he needs to learn how to constructively address in future projects.
There’s also talk about his experience through AFI’s schooling system, how he built all the sets (and why), and selected his cast. Even more interesting was his mentality behind Hereditary, which (as we know) began as a drama and turned into a horror film. As explained by Aster, life can feel like a nightmare, especially when bad things happen and he wanted to honor those emotions. “When it rains it pours.”
Here’s the full podcast:
After kicking off July with discussions of Joe Dante’s seminal werewolf film The Howling (listen) and Ken Russell’s controversial erotic thriller Crimes of Passion (listen), we’re heading to Maine to dissect one of Stephen King‘s most misguided adaptations in Lawrence Kasdan‘s 2003 misfire Dreamcatcher!
Dreamcatcher sees friends Henry (Thomas Jane), Jonesy (Damian Lewis), Pete (Timothy Olyphant) and Beaver (Jason Lee) reunite for their annual hunting trip in Maine. Their reunion is cut short when they find themselves caught in the middle of a war between a hostile race of farty-farty aliens and an elite US military unit led by Colonel Abraham Curtis (Morgan Freeman), who has been driven mad after spending decades tracking the extraterrestrials. When Jonesy is possessed by one of the aliens, the remaining friends seek out their disabled childhood friend Duddits (Donnie Wahlberg), who they believe has powers that can save Jonesy…and the world.
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Episode 396: Dreamcatcher (2003)
Watch out for “ister gay” (oof), take some Gas-X and bite our bags because we’re talking Lawrence Kasdan’s baffling 2003 adaptation of Stephen King’s equally baffling novel Dreamcatcher.
Join us as we go all in on the farty-farty aliens populating this hilarious misfire that often feels like a bad Kevin Smith script. It’s a film filled with characters who get a single defining trait (if they’re lucky), played by respectable actors who are here for the paycheck (looking at you, Morgan Freeman).
Plus: blown-out assholes, using guns as telephones, pitying poor Donnie Wahlberg, and wondering why the hell this movie is called Dreamcatcher.
Cross out Dreamcatcher!
Coming Up Next: We’re going to be lounging around a posh Greenwich Village apartment as we check in on Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954).
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