April has been a month of alien slugs (Slither – listen), Universal Monsters (The Mummy – listen), disaster “comedies” (The Happening – listen), and character studies (One Hour Photo – listen). Horror Queers ushered in May with an underseen co-production between the UK and Australia: a bizarre little 2006 psychological thriller called Like Minds, written and directed by Gregory J. Read and starring the one and only Toni Collette.

In the film, Alex Forbes (Eddie Redmayne in his film debut) is arrested and questioned by police for the suspicious death of his schoolmate, Nigel Colbie (Tom Sturridge). Detective Inspector McKenzie (Richard Roxburgh) is convinced of Alex’s guilt, but he needs the help of forensic therapist Sally Rowe (Collette) to charge the teenager.

What begins as a simple case quickly spirals into a complicated backstory involving taxidermy, night trains, absent parents, and ritualistic murder. Can Sally trust Alex’s story that Nigel corrupted him? Or is the teenage boy a masterful liar who’s using her sympathy to get away with literal murder? Only the Knights Templar know for sure!

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, and RSS.

Episode 385: Like Minds (2006)

Pack your taxidermy kit and catch the night train because we are discussing writer/director Gregory J. Read’s Like Minds (2006).

The film explores the Gestalt relationship that develops between two boys, Nigel and Alex (Tom Sturridge and Eddie Redmayne – in his feature debut) at a boarding school, as well as a series of murders that forensic psychologist Toni Collette (and her bangs) is investigating in the present.

It’s a wild ride, filled with way more bizarre shit than expected. Expect plenty of debate about what exactly is going on here! Big thanks to listener Rachel for bringing this odd little Aussie/UK co-production to our attention!

Cross out Like Minds!

Coming Up Next: We’re “celebrating” the 20th anniversary of Wolfgang Petersen’s Poseidon with a look at the 1972 film that kick started the disaster movie trend: The Poseidon Adventure.

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 487 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on shark movies Thrash and Dark Water, Hokum, Mortal Kombat 2, Obsession and that aforementioned audio commentary on Poseidon.

The post Toni Collette Investigates Murder in 2006’s Homoerotic ‘Like Minds’ [Horror Queers Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

It’s been a wild month, and the reveals continue in the final two episodes of Antonio Campos‘ fictionalized take, which ends with episodes 7 & 8.

Expect plenty of overlapping and blurring of timelines as Kathleen Peterson (Toni Collette) lives out her final days in 2001; Michael (Colin Firth) is released from prison in 2011; and his relationship with editor Sophie (Juliette Binoche) implodes in 2017.

It’s a perfect opportunity to compare/contrast with filmmaker Jean-Xavier de Lestrade‘s docuseries and wrap up our thoughts on what the HBO miniseries is doing, including Jenn’s appreciation of the work of the actors playing the Peterson/Ratliff children.

Expect shout outs for Odessa Young‘s Martha and Sophie Turner‘s Margaret (both of whom get more to do than the boys) and a smidge of thirsting after Patrick Schwarzenegger‘s Todd and Dane DeHaan‘s Clayton.

Plus: memories of malls at Christmas, clocking the changing wigs and hairstyles, and debate about the final ambiguous shot of Michael.

Want even more Murder Made Fiction? Be sure to check out the pod’s Patreon feed, where we have ~120 hours of content including episode by episode coverage of the original docuseries The Staircase and – starting next week – we kick off coverage of Mindhunter S01!

The post HBO’s ‘The Staircase’ Ends On An Ambiguous, Satisfying Note [Murder Made Fiction Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

What followed is one of the most bizarre and sensational true crime stories in modern history.

24 years after the district attorney, the defence, and a rapt public debated if Michael Peterson killed his wife or if her death was an accident, Murder Made Fiction is revisiting the case.

While Jenn and I tackle the 2004 documentary series by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade over on Patreon, we’re using the Main Feed to discuss Antonio Campos‘ HBO’s 2022 limited series, starring Colin Firth as Michael and Toni Collette as Kathleen. Rounding out the all-star cast is Olivia DeYonge as Kathleen’s biological daughter, Caitlin, Patrick Schwarzenegger and Dane DeHaan as Michael’s biological sons, Todd and Clayton, as well as Odessa Young and Sophie Turner as Martha and Margaret Ratliff, the Petersons’ adopted daughters.

In episodes 1 & 2, the Peterson family is introduced across multiple timelines. After the discovery of Kathleen’s body in 2001, we flash back to see her at work at Nortel, fretting about downsizing while Michael runs for political office.

There are also events in 2002-2003 as Michael hires expensive defence lawyer David Rudolph (Michael Stuhlbarg) to represent him in court against DA Hardin (Cullen Moss) and prosecutor Freda Black (Parker Posey). The latter pair weaponize Michael’s sexuality history after discovering a bombshell about his orientation and question the reality of his so-called perfect marriage.

Finally, in a bizarre framing device, there are a few brief scenes in 2017 as Michael dates a new woman (Juliette Binoche) and flees from a convenience store after seeing a familiar face: blood splatter analyst Duane Deaver.

It’s a busy first few episodes, though they do a good job of humanizing Kathleen as a real person, not simply the victim from the grisly autopsy photographs. There’s also an amusing additional meta level when filmmaker Lestrade (played by Vincent Vermignon) arrives in episode 2 to begin filming Michael and his family.

Finally, there’s one extremely memorable horror set-piece in this pair of episodes: a graphic and prolonged recreation of Kathleen’s death. It’s presented as a fall, but seeing Collette flail about in a tight stairwell, slipping in her own blood and coughing it on the walls, proves surprisingly upsetting.

We’ll see if that experience carries over into episodes 3-4 next week!

Want even more Murder Made Fiction? Check out the Patreon feed where Jenn and I have ~120 hours of content, including episode by episode coverage of the aforementioned documentary series The Staircase (2004), as well as all three seasons of Monster (Ed Gein, Dahmer, The Menendez Brothers) among many other shows.

The post Accident or Murder? HBO’s Star Studded ‘The Staircase’ Opened With A Debate [Murder Made Fiction Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

They’ll play a mother and daughter who visit a remote wellness spa for the weekend in an attempt to reconnect. But their time together quickly turns into a physical and psychological fight for survival when they get trapped in a sauna where no one can hear their cries for help.

Production is slated to begin next year in Australia, with writer-director Lucy Knox making her feature debut, based on her 2020 short film of the same name.

Academy Award winner Alex Coco (Anora) will produce via Rapt Films alongside Carver Films’ Sarah Shaw & Anna McLeish (Relic).

Collette will serve as executive producer under her Vocab Films banner with Jen Turner. Ruby Monette-Meadow will also executive produce.

“Lucy is a filmmaker’s filmmaker, exactly the directors that I’m most committed to working with,” said Coco. “With our two lead actresses, this film will play wide globally, and introduce a new and fresh voice to the directing game.”

“As producers with a strong track record of launching Australian filmmakers, we’ve been aware of Lucy’s exceptional talent as a writer-director for many years,” added McLeish and Shaw. “She’s beyond ready to bring Hot Mother to life for audiences worldwide, with its thrilling screenplay and incredible cast.”

Bankside Films is handling worldwide sales and co-repping North America with CAA Media Finance ahead of next week’s American Film Market.

The post Toni Collette & Milly Alcock to Star in Survival Thriller ‘Hot Mother’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The eight-episode limited series streams September 25 on Netflix.  Sinister secrets lurk behind every door in the trailer below.

Not long after police officer Alex Dempsey and his pregnant wife move into their new home in the picture-perfect town of Tall Pines, he connects with two students from the local school for “troubled teens” who are desperate to escape.

As Alex begins investigating a series of unusual incidents, he suspects that Evelyn, the school’s mysterious leader, might be at the center of all the problems.

The show is created by Canadian comedian Mae Martin (“Feel Good”), who shares showrunner duties with Ryan Scott (“Fear the Walking Dead,” “Servant”).

Martin stars alongside Toni Collette. Sarah Gadon, Sydney Topliffe, Alyvia Alyn Lind, and Brandon Jay McLaren round out the main cast.

Recurring cast members include Tattiawna Jones, Isolde Ardies, and Joshua Close, while Patrick J. Adams, Patrick Gallagher, Gage Munroe, Byron Mann, and Mark McKinney guest star.

Euros Lyn (“Doctor Who,” “Heartstopper”), Renuka Jeyapalan (“Kim’s Convenience,” “Ginny & Georgia”), and John Fawcett (“Orphan Black,” Ginger Snaps) direct.

Martin and Scott also serve as writers with Evangeline Ordaz, Mohamad El Masri, Kim Steele, Kayla Lorette, Alex Eldridge, and Misha Osherovich.

Martin describes the genre-bending series as “if you took the kids from Booksmart and put them in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

The post ‘Wayward’ Trailer – Toni Collette Solves the Problem of Adolescence in Netflix Limited Series appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The eight-episode limited series releases September 25, only on Netflix.

Mae Martin, Sarah Gadon, Sydney Topliffe, Alyvia Alyn Lind, Brandon Jay McLaren, and Toni Collette star.

In the picture-perfect town of Tall Pines, sinister secrets lurk behind every closed door. Not long after police officer Alex Dempsey (Mae Martin) and his pregnant wife Laura (Sarah Gadon) move into their new home, he connects with two students Abbie (Sydney Topliffe) and Leila (Alyvia Alyn Lind) from the local school for “troubled teens” who are desperate to escape and could be the key to unearthing everything rotten in the town.

As Alex begins investigating a series of unusual incidents, he suspects that Evelyn (Toni Collette), the school’s mysterious leader, might be at the center of all the problems. Created by Mae Martin, Wayward is a thrilling and genre-bending limited series about the eternal struggle between one generation and the next, what happens when friendship and loyalty are put to the ultimate test, and how buried truths always find a way of coming to the surface.

Recurring cast includes Tattiawna Jones, Isolde Ardies, and Joshua Close.

The new series hails from co-showrunners and executive producers Mae Martin and Ryan Scott.

The showrunners tell Netflix that the series drew from Get Out, Gone Girl, and Fargo. “We were saying it’s like if you took the kids from Booksmart and put them in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” Martin said.

Check out the new teaser below and expect to see and hear a lot more about this series as September approaches.

The post ‘Wayward’ Teaser – Nothing is What it Seems in Netflix Series Starring Toni Collette appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Sy the Photo Guy remains a defining character in Williams’ career, even after playing another villain in Insomnia that same year. However, to outright label the chronically lonely and dejected photo developer as a total bad guy is an oversimplification. Director and writer Mark Romanek disentangled the profoundly layered Sy — who serves as both the film’s protagonist and antagonist — and submitted an unnerving, not to mention sympathetic character study. 

Once it came “time to add some dark colors to the palette,” Williams was excited. He was not always offered roles like Seymour “Sy” Parrish (no relation to Jumanji’s Alan Parrish). And never sure he would get another chance to portray someone so disturbed and complex, Williams played the part to the fullest. A character such as Sy demanded more physical restraint than Williams was used to at the time; this long-serving employee in a store’s photo department is a deeply repressed man who tended to color inside the lines. Anyone familiar with Williams’ previous work was accustomed to seeing him animated, over the top, and passionate. Mr. Parrish, on the other hand, is an emotional time-bomb just waiting to explode.

For most of his life, Sy kept himself in check for reasons not known until One Hour Photo’s startling conclusion. Before reaching that bleak dead end, Sy looked forward to only one thing in life: developing the photos for one particular family he had come to see as the pinnacle of perfection over the years. The Yorkins are indeed picturesque, but those hundreds of snapshots only captured the best moments in their lives. They did not show the cracks in Will (Michael Vartan) and Nina Yorkin’s (Connie Nielsen) dwindling marriage, nor did they show Will’s neglectful behavior with his nine-year-old son (Dylan Smith). Sy may have nurtured this impractical fantasy of the Yorkins, yet the idea did not appear out of nowhere. The Yorkins presented a specific image of themselves to the world, and Sy did not only take that false impression to heart, he built his whole life around it.

One Hour Photo benefits from Mark Romanek’s experience as a music-video director. The film’s immaculate and thoughtfully designed aesthetic punctuates Sy’s story from start to finish. In contrast with the warm and saturated palette that gives off a quality comparable to old photos and darkrooms is the film’s centerpiece. SavMart is a hyper-stylized big-box store where the fluorescent lights are brighter than normal, and the shelves are stocked in the most eerily uniform manner. Sy’s everyday environment borders on the surreal, which only adds to his increasing delusions. This sterile setting possesses an almost purifying and celestial light. SavMart runs on monotony, whereas the world outside the store is cluttered and generally uncomfortable to be in. So when Sy is fired from his job, his devastation is to be expected. Banished from his own personal heaven, Williams’ distraught character is forced to live full-time in the ugly reality beyond SavMart’s exit. 

While it seemed like One Hour Photo did not go as far as it could have, there is no denying the effect that Williams’ staggering performance had on viewers. No one back then was prepared to see the comic combust in such an agonizing and cheerless way. This was no one-man show, but it was definitely a showcase for Williams’ flair for chilling drama.

The same year that One Hour Photo was released, Robin Williams starred in Insomnia and Death to Smoochy. The latter was another of the actor’s disruptive genre pieces, but the general response to this pitch-black comedy, as well as the 2004 sci-fi thriller The Final Cut, was not especially kind. With his series of atypical roles generating mixed reception, it was only understandable when Williams returned to comedy.

Of all the films that Williams starred in in 2006, The Night Listener stands out as the most aberrant. This adaptation of Armistead Maupin’s novel of the same name — and based on true events — is more conventional than One Hour Photo. And unlike that film, Williams was not playing the role of a villain. On the contrary, Gabriel Noone is a flawed yet accessible radio-show host who falls under the spell of a young memoirist (Rory Culkin). Patrick Stettner’s final directorial feature offers fairly straightforward suspense, however, those thrills are not exactly gentle either.

Williams was not portraying another sociopath, and he was by no means the center attraction in The Night Listener. No, this was closer to an ensemble pic with Toni Collette ultimately stealing the show — as she usually does — as the nuanced Donna Logand. Even so, Williams did not fade into the background when pitted against Collette’s intimidating character. He was simply placed on the receiving end of things for once; Williams was the one responding to a substantial and often unpredictable personality. Of course, it was not an entirely compliant role for Williams, seeing as Gabriel was investigating the validity of an ailing boy’s trauma-fueled memoir.

With The Night Listener, Williams turned in one of his most subtle performances. His character was snarky and enjoyed provoking shock in certain company, but Williams did it all in the most disciplined fashion. Even Gabriel’s spats with ex-boyfriend Jesse (Bobby Cannavale) are fleeting and frank rather than prolonged and theatrical. Naturally some viewers would have tuned in to see Williams and anticipated something a bit more distinctive from the always expressive actor. Even though his understated approach was certainly unexpected, it fits this type of film. This quietly creepy thriller demonstrated catfishing before the term became more common, and it is best enjoyed on a late, lonely night in a dark room.

After seeing films like One Hour Photo and The Night Listener, it was obvious that Robin Williams was fully capable of being more than just a funnyman. He was hilarious, however, he could just as easily make your skin crawl if given the opportunity. Undoubtedly, this beloved actor is best remembered for his many comedies, but his occasional detours into other genres are also worth celebrating.

The post ‘One Hour Photo’ and ‘The Night Listener’ – Revisiting Two of Robin Williams’ Psychological Thrillers appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Now, just as we’re barely halfway through 2023, horror fans are eager to witness the  next chapter in The Exorcist franchise, spearheaded by the Pineapple Express folks. There’s a new addition to the Insidious franchise out now, and. Uhm. Well – time is certainly a flat circle.

Nevertheless, looking back now – it feels as though horror was at the precipice of a massive shift. It geared toward a new direction in storytelling and filmmaking that set the tone for what was ahead. I can’t help but feel like the shift has something to do with a film that came out five Junes ago.

On June 8th, 2018, Ari Aster’s debut feature film, Hereditary hit theaters and, much like the head of a young girl in anaphylactic shock to a telephone pole, made a massive impact (sorry) with audiences and fans of the genre. It felt like a much-needed breath of fresh air for horror, as it seemed to reignite something. Fans appreciated the film’s commitment to subverting tired tropes of horror and its ability to instill genuine terror that wasn’t the result of a trite series of ineffective jump scares or unappealing CG creatures/demons/etc.

Hereditary felt like a defining statement on where horror had been leading up to, with the previous films of the 2010s and their grief-based indie horror (a movement I’ve written about before). And in the time since its release, there’ve been more films that echo the sentiments Aster had implemented in this film. Even as recently as last year, a moderately budgeted wide studio horror release, Smile, tried to get in on the fun, with its tone and stylistic choices seemingly borrowing from what is slowly becoming the norm.

The extent of the success and lasting importance of Aster’s film – even a mere five years later, doesn’t lie solely in the hands of the impact on the genre as a whole. Instead, I’d like to think that Hereditary’s continued success and reverence are related to how much the film resonated and connected on a deeper, unconscious level.

And that level has something to do with the uncanny.

First, what exactly is The Uncanny?

The Uncanny is a concept introduced by German psychiatrist Ernst Jentsch– though it most notably would become popularized and further elaborated upon by the world-renowned psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud in an essay of his titled Das Unheimliche.

What Freud discusses in his work can (sort of) explain our attraction to certain aspects of horror media and why we return so often or feel a connection to things that terrify us. As Freud hypothesizes, these images are connected to repressed feelings buried within our subconscious and rise to the surface only when the horrors on-screen manifest themselves into recognizable images that are palatable to our conscious mind– triggering something in our unconscious. Thus, provoking some cathartic understanding.

He categorizes the images into two distinct fields: Heimlich and Unheimlich. Those within the Heimlich– or “home-like” as a crass translation — are images or ideas that can often be associated/paired with things we register as familiar and personal. They aren’t alien to our realm of consciousness. Conversely, images that we can consider to be unheimlich- are those that are unfamiliar, uncomfortable, or unconcealed and reveal what was previously unnoticed.

To further illustrate this idea, Freud discusses the likeness of children and the relationship that has with the uncanny. As it’s explained, children are often the representation of pure innocence. This notion often creates difficulty for us to associate or pair the image of children with feelings of malice or terror. The uncanny revelation is most apparent when filmmakers attach the horror behind the likeness of kids, which — indirectly, will bring forth hidden fears and force the viewer to confront themselves with these emotions and process something they might not have even been aware of, to begin with.

As an example, let’s consider Rosemary’s Baby. The film uses the idea of pregnancy as one of its genesis of horror. Throughout the film, our association of harm comes from the people around the titular Rosemary (Mia Farrow)- we never consider that the horror — the true horror — is INSIDE of her all along: The son of The Devil. The Heimlich images, in this instance, would be motherhood and pregnancy. To think that something so pure as the creation of life or a child could, in the slightest, become associated with the second coming of Lucifer himself would be unseemly. Now, it’s not to say that this particular example is simply a part of the Uncanny because it deals with pregnancy or children, for that matter.

The Uncanny, by definition, revolves around recognizing something on such a personal level that there is an understandable sense of unease when coming in contact with it. People who often feel weary with the idea of motherhood and pregnancy are already dealing with fear on some deeper level. Thus, when someone who struggles with this issue watches this film and bears witness to a woman who has involuntarily given birth to the anti-christ — those fears intensify tenfold. However, what remains helpful and relieving to this dread that comes with confronting an uncanny horror is that — movies can end. And, in that ending, often lies release.

On that same notion of familiarity, as touched upon in Rosemary’s, the idea that the source of evil can come from those around us and whom we trust personally, like family, becomes another inherent Heimlich terror that Freud could be hinting at, in regards to The Uncanny. I mean– how much more familiar can you get than your family?

Our family represents an extension of ourselves. Who we are and where we come from are parts of our identity we can never truly escape. So, masking the invasion of horror behind this idea makes it easier for true terror to seep in and cause us to squirm in discomfort as we come face-to-face with a conflux of thoughts and emotions we deemed best kept hidden.

Something like this is what a filmmaker exploring themes in the horror genre should strive to achieve, or at least consider when crafting a story that seeks to terrify and keep us on edge. Of course, there are great horror films out there that can scare the audience without all these complex ideas embedded into the story. However, the ones that usually stick with us, for better or worse, strike at something inside us.

So, why is this important?

It’s pertinent to understand that often, what makes a film terrifying isn’t the surface-level horror we take at face value. It’s all the deep-rooted subtext that we, coincidentally enough, would prefer to avoid talking about. Somehow it’s both astonishing and unsettling to see films portray aspects of our personal experiences to such a realistic degree. The contempt shared between a mother and her son with the weight of grief drowning them or the unspoken glares of pent-up emotions. All of these things that Aster pulls off in the film give it this necessary sense of realism that subjects us to these emotions tethered to the Uncanny.

The Uncanny, though being theoretical for the most part — which is sure to annoy many who don’t subscribe to these ideas — nevertheless still gives us a chance at understanding why certain things in horror work the way they do. More importantly, it becomes the bedrock of why I believe Ari Aster’s debut feature is as gripping as it is.

Every family tree hides a secret. Evil runs in the family.

Hereditary follows Annie, played by Toni Collette, in an Academy Award-worthy performance as she struggles to deal with the traumatic events befalling her family. In the film, death and grief seem to be around the corner — further testing the wits of her sanity.

It’s apparent throughout the film that Annie, like any mother, truly wants what’s best for her family — more specifically — her children, Charlie (Milly Shapiro) and Peter (Alex Wolfe) — while also dealing with the emotional turmoil that seems to linger (often literally) in the shadows.

So much of the horror in Hereditary lies firmly in this idea of The Uncanny. The traumatizing events these characters face — at least those relative to an Uncanny experience — leave them broken and fundamentally changed. On top of the many real-world fears that Annie grapples with, it’s apparent she’s terrified at the thought of figuratively (or, as she thinks, literally) becoming her mother. We’re privy to the notion that Annie’s upbringing was a series of traumatic experiences and disheartening relationships. The disconnect and contempt she feels for her mother and the thought of inevitably becoming her — hinting at the multi-faceted meaning of the title itself — becomes one of her driving forces. However, as she fails to cope with her daughter’s death, she inadvertently causes Peter to form the same loathing — forcing her to fall in line with her fears. This primal, grounded fear of the inevitable and becoming the other is deeply rooted in psychoanalysis and horror. As she experiences the supernatural presence tormenting her family, Annie comes vis-a-vis the emotions she’d so professedly hidden.

Annie’s woes of becoming another patriarchal figure of odium for her children and her control over the matter is one of the film’s many depressing factors. Her struggle for agency manifests itself on-screen with what she does whenever there aren’t nude cultists around or deadly ghost moms hiding in corners. She spends most of her time crafting miniature set-pieces, almost as if to gain a better perspective on certain moments or events in her life. Her sculpting lends itself as a morbidly ironic sense of mirroring, becoming one of many instances where this idea — or the Freudian “double” if you want to take it a step further– presents itself throughout the film. Annie’s craftwork ultimately reflects how the cult of Paimon has been meticulously planning every single thing that happens. Eventually, their desired goal of obtaining Peter’s body in hopes of it being a host for their king of Hell proves successful as headless bodies and devotees hail around a possessed Peter.

The struggle for agency and the thematic sense of inescapable fears and horrors is foreshadowed in an earlier moment in the film, as Peter’s crush reveals, “It’s all just inevitable, that means the characters have no hope and that they never had hope, because they’re just like pawns in this horrible, hopeless machine.” We find that the Graham family never stood a chance — doomed from the beginning; the cult of Paimon’s signature on the fateful pole that beheads dearest Charlie makes this evident.

Backtracking to Uncanny again, one of its most recognizable features in the film is the resident “creepy child,” Charlie. Much like Damien from The Omen, the baby spawn of Satan in Rosemary’s, or the vomit-spewing Regan– Charlie is our manifestation of evil here. While the film later reveals that she had been inhabited by Paimon all along– dead or alive, she seemed to have been a hot spot for eeriness. Keeping that in mind, it feels oddly more terrifying to see just how malicious the idea of evil is in the film. Like the other children in those movies, it isn’t Charlie’s fault that she is Paimon, nor does she have any control over the matter. She just is, unfortunately. Her being an intense presence of evil is an attack on the child and an attack on innocence. In other words, this is an attack on the family and the home– the Heimlich, if you will. Understanding this idea becomes incumbent on understanding the film’s central theme and what’s so unsettling about it. First and foremost, it’s about a family’s struggle with grief and of the home – which happens to be where the horror is rooted in. Using Charlie as a vessel for all the unfortunate things that transpire summons our sympathy and forces us to process alongside the rest of the family through this modern-day Greek tragedy.

Now, what creates the film’s Uncanny experience for us, the audience, is how intrinsically grounded the emotions of each character feel upon reflection. Freud makes it paramount to understand that we can only receive the gratification of an uncanny experience when the medium in question allows its story to partake in the real world, with real people, real situations, and so on. This point, more than anything, I think, is why Hereditary resonated so much with audiences. Sure, the film is terrifying; the shots are mesmerizing, and Colin Stetson’s score is remarkable. However, the emotional burden that these characters struggle with feels palpable through every performance in the film– which propels our ability to have an Uncanny experience, eventually causing us to undergo an unsettling realization. It can (and should) be considered almost universal for people to experience a sense of disconnection from their parents — which this film plays to a T. Whether it is explicit in an explosive dinner scene or what is left unsaid amongst unsettling glares and looks. Moments like these help transcend the film and ultimately permit those unconscious fears to come about– allowing all that was once hidden and concealed to confront us, leaving us as horrified as a mother facing her mortality in the death of her mother and daughter.

A lasting impression.

Alright. So, you could be sitting here, thinking that five years might be too soon to discuss whether Hereditary has truly made a lasting impression on the genre on a larger scale. However, I argue that, if anything, the answer to this lies in horror’s past.

One of the many annoying taglines you’ll read for any modern horror picture is the futile moniker of being the “scariest film since The Exorcist!”

This needlessly provoking sentiment was one of many selling points for the film around the time of its release – and, I’m not about to sit here and argue whether Hereditary is scarier than The Exorcist or if its the best horror film since and so on because truthfully – it’s not the point.

What’s “scary” is entirely subjective and varies from person to person, experience to experience. The lasting impact of Friedkin’s film doesn’t solely rely on the terror that felt groundbreaking for that generation. I would argue that among the most impactful sequences of the film are the intimate and intense moments of vulnerability that have stuck with us since.

We see a mother at her wit’s end, struggling to come up with any substantial explanation for how or why what’s happening to Reagan is taking place. A grief-stricken priest who has fallen out of his faith and can no longer see his sense of self-worth and make sense of the world he lives in. Because this film gives as much weight to all of humanity – or lack of it in some cases, as it does to spinning heads and penetration by way of crucifixes; the lasting memory and impact still have horror fans reeling a whole FIFTY years later.

Hereditary offers a similar emotional resonance to this new generation of horror – my generation of horror– as movie-goers in the seventies when they first saw Exorcist. Much like Aster’s film, we see the incomprehensible evil wear the face of a young girl; the victim of a raw deal she had no say in, as it tears a family to its core. Sure, both films offer so many terrifying visuals that can make the hair stand up on anyone’s neck – but it also depicts intense relationships and emotions that are tangible. Real. Familiar.

In that familiarity lies the uncanny, ready to rear its ugly head and force us to confront thoughts and horrors laying dormant and clawing at our psyche. And it doesn’t matter if it’s been five or fifty years. These horrors are always there, as we become pawns in its horrible, hopeless machine.

The post Five Years Later: A Retrospective on the Uncanny Horrors of ‘Hereditary’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

After spending two weeks talking about dinosaurs with Tammy and the T-Rex and then Jurassic Park last week, it seemed like a good time to revisit a very serious, very somber contemporary classic: Ari Aster‘s 2018 family melodrama, Heredtiary, just in time for its 5th anniversary.

In the film, grieving diorama creator Annie (Toni Collette) has recently lost her mother, with whom she had a very contentious relationship. Almost immediately the family is hit with another loss when daughter Charlie (Milly Shapiro) is killed in a freak accident.

As Annie’s husband Steve (Gabriel Byrne) tries to keep the family together, Annie is befriended by Joan (Ann Dowd), a member of her grief counseling group, while her son Peter (Alex Wolff) begins to come under psychic attack. What’s really going on with all of these unusual events? The truth lies in the treehouse; just mind your head!

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS.

Episode 234: Hereditary (2018) feat. Girl, That’s Scary

Avoid triangles and watch your head because we’re talking Ari Aster’s Hereditary (2018) aka the film that we named our horror awards after!

We’re joined by mega fans Jazz and Kat from Girl, That’s Scary, who love the film, but wonder if Aster is ok?

It’s all about Toni Collette’s “bad mom”, but also shout-outs to Alex Wolff and Ann Dowd.

Plus: a trans reading of Paimon, Dante’s Inferno, secret clues, skittering and turkey noises, and the perils of making deals with the 8th King of Hell.

Cross out Hereditary!

Coming up on Wednesday: We’re travelling back to 1989 to discuss the hair politics of queer director Justin Simien’s Bad Hair (2020)!

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for nearly 248 hours of additional content! This month we’re catching up on horror TV with Slasher: Ripper and Yellowjackets S02, as well the all-black slasher film, The Blackening and Rob Savage’s adaptation of the Stephen King short story The Boogeyman.  Plus: our audio commentary is on aquatic slasher film Jaws 2, just in time for its 45th anniversary.

The post Revisiting a Contemporary Classic With ‘Hereditary’ [Horror Queers Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

“The Power” is described as an “emotionally driven global thriller” based on British author Naomi Alderman’s award-winning novel of the same name. 

The new teaser trailer below warns of an impending revolution thanks to a unique superpower that leaves teen girls with the ability to electrocute on a whim. Collette’s character opens with a plea to take this new development seriously, begging the question of how lethal will this phenomenon become? It also highlights an all-star cast and teases another bloody dance floor.

The series, which will premiere on the streaming service on March 31, 2023, comes from Amazon Studios and SISTER, with Raelle Tucker (“True Blood”) serving as showrunner. The 10-episode series gets ambitious in scale, too, featuring a global story “from London to Seattle, Nigeria to Eastern Europe.”

In the series: “The Power is our world, but for one twist of nature. Suddenly, and without warning, teenage girls develop the power to electrocute people at will. The series features a cast of remarkable characters from London to Seattle, Nigeria to Eastern Europe, as the Power evolves from a tingle in teenagers’ collarbones to a complete reversal of the power balance of the world.”

Collette stars as Mayor Margot Cleary-Lopez, alongside Leguizamo as Rob Lopez, Auli’i Cravalho as Jos Cleary-Lopez, Toheeb Jimoh as Tunde Ojo, Josh Charles as Daniel Dandon, Eddie Marsan as Bernie Monke, Ria Zmitrowicz as Roxy Monke, Zrinka Cvitešić as Tatiana Moskalev, Halle Bush as Allie Montgomery, and more.

“The Power” will premiere exclusively on Prime Video on Friday, March 31, with new episodes available each Friday, leading up to the season finale on May 12, 2023. Check out the teaser and new images below.

The post Prime Video’s “The Power” Teaser Trailer Sparks Electric Revolution Starring Toni Collette appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Deadline reports today that pre-production on the untitled movie is underway at Warner Bros Studios Leavesden, with Robert Pattinson starring alongside Toni Collette.

Mark Ruffalo and Naomi Ackie will also star.

Published back in February, Mickey7 is described as a “science fiction thriller,” and it was written by Edward Ashton. Here’s the plot synopsis for the book, via Amazon…

“The Martian meets Dark Matter in Edward Ashton’s high concept science fiction thriller, in which Mickey7, an “expendable,” refuses to let his replacement clone Mickey8 take his place.”

“Dying isn’t any fun…but at least it’s a living.

“Mickey7 is an Expendable: a disposable employee on a human expedition sent to colonize the ice world Niflheim. Whenever there’s a mission that’s too dangerous―even suicidal―the crew turns to Mickey. After one iteration dies, a new body is regenerated with most of his memories intact. After six deaths, Mickey7 understands the terms of his deal…and why it was the only colonial position unfilled when he took it.

“On a fairly routine scouting mission, Mickey7 goes missing and is presumed dead. By the time he returns to the colony base, surprisingly helped back by native life, Mickey7’s fate has been sealed. There’s a new clone, Mickey8, reporting for Expendable duties. The idea of duplicate Expendables is universally loathed, and if caught, they will likely be thrown into the recycler for protein.

“Mickey7 must keep his double a secret from the rest of the colony. Meanwhile, life on Niflheim is getting worse. The atmosphere is unsuitable for humans, food is in short supply, and terraforming is going poorly. The native species are growing curious about their new neighbors, and that curiosity has Commander Marshall very afraid. Ultimately, the survival of both lifeforms will come down to Mickey7.

“That is, if he can just keep from dying for good.”

Deadline notes, “While the film will be inspired by the novel, sources say that given Bong’s past experiences with adaptations, his version might ultimately be different from the novel.”

The post Bong Joon-ho’s Next Movie Will Be a Sci-fi Thriller Starring Robert Pattinson and Toni Collette appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The eight-episode original limited series, created by Antonio Campos, debuts Thursday, May 5 on HBO Max. You can watch the official “The Staircase” teaser trailer below.

The first three episodes debut May 5, with subsequent episodes airing each week. Notable for horror fans, Leigh Janiak (Fear Street) directed two of the episodes.

“Based on a true story, The Staircase explores the life of Michael Peterson (Colin Firth), his sprawling North Carolina family, and the suspicious death of his wife, Kathleen Peterson (Toni Collette).”

The docuseries is titled “The Staircase” because Peterson claims his wife Kathleen fell down the stairs in their home, though many believe he actually bludgeoned her to death.

The cast for the series also includes Rosemarie DeWitt, Juliette Binoche, Parker Posey, Odessa Young, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Dane DeHaan, Olivia DeJonge, Sophie Turner, Michael Stuhlbarg and Tim Guinee. Campos and Maggie Cohn write/produce/show-run.

The post “The Staircase” Teaser Trailer – Toni Collette and Colin Firth Star in HBO Max True Crime Series appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

After leaving his burning home, Stanton comes across a carnival and quickly ingratiates himself with owner Clem Hoately (Willem Dafoe). Clem tasks Stanton with the hard labor and often the unsavory tasks, like keeping the grotesque Geek caged and under control. But Stanton is ambitious and begins learning everything he can, especially the secrets behind Zeena (Toni Collette) and Pete’s (Peter Strathairn) fortune-telling act. He wants to use that knowledge to create and act in the big city, creating the opportunity of a bigger con scheme with psychiatrist Lillith Ritter (Cate Blanchett).

Del Toro and co-writer Kim Morgan give their spin on William Lindsay Gresham’s source novel and lay the groundwork early for Carlisle’s destination. It’s a somber tale of a man so blinded by his pursuits and ambition that he fails to heed the warnings and signs time and time again, despite many along his path spelling it all out for him. Carlisle witnesses firsthand the aftermath of self-blindness in Pete, then Clem details his cruel means of obtaining Geek acts for his carnival- a vital key to this morose tale. Nightmare Alley offers no narrative surprises or twists for the viewer; our anxiety and tension mounts for Stanton’s hubris causing his inability to heed warnings and plow headfirst into danger.

Because of that, del Toro’s latest can be prone to meandering passages that make you feel this movie’s length. And while Stanton’s tale gets morose, with stark bursts of shocking violence, del Toro struggles to capture the cynicism of noir. His trademark romanticism instead pumps through the veins of Nightmare Alley. His expert use of lush production design is also on full display, though the attempts to capture the muted tones of the carnival’s Dust Bowl setting dampens the effect and can obscure some of the exquisite detail.

The only connection to noir’s moody pessimism lies with Blanchett’s Lillith. The actress vamps it up, spinning a deadly web of deceit but grounds it with glimpses of tragic vulnerability. Lillith long ago learned to weaponize her pain through cunning intelligence, making her an unexpected threat in a world of men that employ brute force to achieve power. In a packed cast bearing no shortage of remarkable performances, it speaks volumes that Blanchett is the one that stands out. Any scene with Lillith on screen is electric.

Cooper has the much trickier task with a sharp dramatic arc that ebbs and flows in extreme highs and lows. He nails Stanton’s sleaziest moments and gives a compelling portrayal in the finale but struggles with Stan’s charming side. Collette and Strathairn are heartbreakers, and Richard Jenkins brings intense volatility in the latter half. Nightmare Alley is an actor’s showcase, a film that digs deep into its characters.

It’s the characters that make Nightmare Alley a success. Del Toro paints a sumptuous portrait of two parallel worlds for Stanton to navigate. The harsh but honest- through no less mean- life of a carnie and the alluring though cutthroat big city are both made tangible by the complicated and fully rendered people who inhabit those spaces. The mind games and brutal realities that result in self-discovery across the board. The emotional beats hit hard as all personal revelations hit.

Nightmare Alley offers psychological thrills in a profoundly haunting and intricately woven rumination on society’s dark underbelly, on the pursuit of success and damnation that might lurk at the end. Del Toro occasionally gets lost in giving every emotional beat room to breathe and grow, causing pacing lulls in the middle, especially for a narrative so hyper-focused on Stan’s specific trajectory. Those hoping for conventional, fatalistic noir may come away disappointed; this wholly bears del Toro’s imprint and penchant for stylistic flourishes, symbolism, and melancholic romance. It’s not the filmmaker’s strongest effort, yet it’s still a soaring spectacle that casts a spell.

Nightmare Alley releases in theaters on December 17, 2021.

Editor’s Note: This review was originally published on December 2, 2021.

The post [Review] Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Nightmare Alley’ Is a Bleak, Winding Road to Ruin appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The response that we received was out of this world and we immediately decided to make the awards an annual event.

Enter the third annual Hereditaries, which celebrates the amazing diversity of horror films released in 2021. Ranging from blockbusters like Candyman and The Night House to avant-garde indies like The Feast and Titane to “under the radar” releases like Shudder’s The Boy Behind The Door and The Medium, we’re shining a light on all of the great horror content that has come out during (yet another!) unorthodox year.

Here’s what you’re voting on:

• Best Wide Release
• Best Indie
• Best Non-English Horror
• Best Under The Radar
• Best Horror TV
• Best First Feature Director
• Best Director
• Best Actor
• Best Actress
• Best Supporting Actor
• Best Supporting Actress
• Best Child/Teen Actor
• Best Ensemble
• Best Creature Design – New for 2021
• Best Villain
• Best Sequence
• Best Ending – New for 2021
• Best Kill

Context: The 18 categories were informed by listener responses and then narrowed down by Trace and I. In order to be eligible, films had to be widely available this year (either wide theatrical, VOD or on streaming services), which sadly means no festival exclusives.

In order to keep the voting competitive, most categories were capped at five nominees and films were only eligible once per category. This inevitably means that some favourites have been left out, but this is best way to ensure a tight race. Kill your darlings, folks!

Finally, we’ve also added spoiler warnings for the last four categories, just in case you haven’t seen films like Violation, Old or Silent Night.

Click here to vote. The deadline to enter is Friday, Dec 17 at 11:59pm EST.

Winners will be announced on Horror Queers social media accounts (Facebook group, Instagram and Twitter), as well as a special Patreon minisode in early January 2022.

The post BD’s ‘Horror Queers’ Celebrate the Best Horror of 2021 with Third Annual “Hereditaries” Awards; Vote Now! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The footage from the film is nothing short of stunning, looking like del Toro’s own take on Gotham City, calling to mind Tim Burton’s Batman and its even more astonishing sequel Batman Returns.

In the film…

“An ambitious young carny (Cooper) with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words hooks up with a female psychiatrist (Blanchett) who is even more dangerous than he is.”

We’ve also uploaded character posters for most of the insane ensemble, which includes Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara, Ron Perlman, Mary Steenburgen, and David Strathairn.

One thing we need to make clear right off the bat? Nightmare Alley isn’t a horror movie. “It has happened to me in the past with Crimson Peak, where people went in expecting a horror movie. But yes, this has no supernatural element. It’s based completely in a reality world. There is nothing fantastic. It’s a very different movie from my usual,” del Toro tells Vanity Fair.

The movie adapts the novel by William Lindsay Gresham. Published in 1946, the novel spawned its first feature film just one year later starring Tyrone Power and Joan Blondell, and this new take was written by del Toro and Kim Morgan.

Nightmare Alley is on the way this holiday season from Searchlight Pictures, with the hotly anticipated film only in theaters on December 17.

The post Official Trailer for Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Nightmare Alley’ Calls to Mind…Tim Burton’s ‘Batman’?! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

There are many theories about what happened to Kathleen Peterson on Dec. 9, 2001, yet HBO Max will attempt to tell their Hollywoodized version in a limited series.

Rosemarie DeWitt who you may remember from the 2015 remake of Poltergeist, is set to star alongside the previously announced Hereditary‘s Toni Collette and Colin Firth in HBO Max’s drama limited series adaptation based on the true-crime docuseries, reports Deadline.

The eight-episode series from Antonio Campos, who directed the excellent Rebecca Hall-fronted feature Christine, and “American Crime Story” writer Maggie Cohn, explores the life of Michael Peterson (played by Firth), his sprawling North Carolina family and the suspicious death of his wife, Kathleen (Collette), adds the site who notes that DeWitt will play Candace Zamperini, Kathleen Peterson’s sister.

“The series is based on the docuseries and various books and reports on the case. Michael Peterson was convicted of murdering Kathleen in 2001, a charge that was reduced to manslaughter in 2017, and Peterson subsequently was released from prison. He had claimed his wife died after falling down the stairs at their home after consuming alcohol and Valium, but an autopsy concluded she died from multiple injuries, including blows to the back of her head with a blunt object.”

RELATED: “The Staircase”: Compelling “Owl Theory” Video May Convince You That the Killer Was Actually a Bird!

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Joe Penna, director of the Mads Mikkelsen-starring Arctic, is next headed to outer space for the sci-fi thriller Stowaway, which has an impressive cast including Toni Collette (Hereditary) and Anna Kendrick (A Simple Favor), alongside Daniel Dae Kim (Hellboy) and Shamier Anderson (“Wynonna Earp”). Today, Netflix has debuted the official trailer. Find it below.

In Stowaway, “On a mission headed to Mars, an unintended stowaway accidentally causes severe damage to the spaceship’s life support systems. Facing dwindling resources and a potentially fatal outcome, the crew is forced to make an impossible decision.”

Joe Penna and Ryan Morrison wrote the script.

Stowaway arrives exclusively on Netflix on April 22.

The post Toni Collette and Anna Kendrick Experience an Outer Space Nightmare in Netflix’s ‘Stowaway’ [Trailer] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The magazine also heads to mars with the first-ever photos from the sci-fi thriller, revealing the cast that includes the likes of Hereditary‘s Toni Collette and Anna Kendrick (A Simple Favor), alongside Daniel Dae Kim (Hellboy) and Shamier Anderson (“Wynonna Earp”).

In the film…

“On a mission headed to Mars, an unintended stowaway (Anderson) accidentally causes severe damage to the spaceship’s life support systems. Facing dwindling resources and a potentially grim outcome, a medical researcher (Kendrick) emerges as the only dissenting voice against the clinical logic of both her commander (Collette) and the ship’s biologist (Kim).”

“I had never really read anything like it,” Collette tells EW. “It is contained and the characters are confined but the questions posed, moral and otherwise, are vast and wide open.”

“These incredible people basically sit on a bomb and allow themselves to be flung into the unknown in the name of science and exploration,” Collette added. “There are so many points at which the mission can go wrong. It’s fine until it isn’t. Then it becomes a moral dilemma before transmuting into absolute survival. It’s petrifying.”

Check out some first images…

The post [Images] ‘Stowaway’: Toni Collette and Anna Kendrick Take off to Mars in Sci-Fi Thriller Heading to Netflix on April 22 appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Trace and I had a surprisingly busy November: we tackled a not-great Candyman sequel, a great adaptation in The Ruins and, oh yeah, we celebrated our 100th episode with Cruising.

December is all about the holidays, so we had to kick the last month of the year off with a festive horror film that captures how nasty family can be at this time of year. And what better film to screen than Mike Dougherty‘s Krampus?

In the film, a dysfunctional extended family gathers for Christmas, but after tensions explode at dinner, son Max (Emjay Anthony) makes a nasty Christmas wish that his family, including mom (Toni Collette), dad (Adam Scott), aunt (Allison Tolman) and uncle (David Koechner), fall prey to Krampus and his demonic Dark Elves.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS.

Episode 102 – Krampus (2015) feat. Bobby Torrez

We’re kicking off the holiday season by hunkering down in a snow globe with YouTube star Bobby Torrez and a screening of Michael Dougherty’s Krampus (2015).

The film has an all-star cast (Toni Collette! Adam Scott! Allison Tolman! David Koechner!), but doesn’t manage to nail its balance of tones like Trick ‘r Treat did. Thankfully the film has a great score (suck it Joe!) and a fantastically unnerving jack in the box named Der Klown, who Trace cannot stop jizzing over. Plus: Krampus as an LGBT icon, why the holidays are hard for queers, and lesbian-coded twins.

Cross out Krampus!

Coming up on Wednesday: We’re turning our attention to a beloved entry in the Batman franchise, but not the one listeners might expect. We’re covering Batman: Mask of the Phantasm!

– Joe & Trace

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for tons of additional content! For December, we’re digging into the top horror stories of 2020 and our Best films of the year. Plus: full length episodes on Possessor, Freaky and an audio commentary on Dial Code Santa Claus, the R-rated Home Alone film that came out before Home Alone!

The post [Horror Queers Podcast] The Familial Horror of the Holidays in ‘Krampus’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Daniel Dae Kim (Hellboy) and Shamier Anderson (“Wynonna Earp”) also star, and we’ve learned today via Deadline that Netflix has acquired “near-global rights” to the film.

Deadline adds, “Netflix will release the recently completed movie in the U.S., UK, Australia/New Zealand, India, Latin America, Africa and a host of other major markets in Asia and Europe.”

“Stowaway charts how, on a mission to Mars, an unintended stowaway (Anderson) accidentally causes severe damage to the spaceship’s life-support systems. Facing dwindling resources and a potentially grim outcome, a medical researcher (Kendrick) emerges as the only dissenting voice against the clinical logic of both her commander (Collette) and the ship’s biologist (Kim).”

Written by Penna and Ryan Morrison, Stowaway will hit Netflix sometime in 2021.

The post A Mission to Mars: Netflix Acquires Toni Collette and Anna Kendrick-Starring Sci-fi Thriller ‘Stowaway’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Jessie Buckley (Beast) stars as a Young Woman embarking on a road trip with her new boyfriend, Jake (Jesse Plemons), to his family farm. She’s to meet his parents for the first time, even though she’s been heavily considering ending their relationship. Once there, a snowstorm traps them in place, and an awkward first meeting is rendered downright bizarre thanks to strange behavior from Jake’s mother (Toni Collette) and father (David Thewlis). As Jake grows more frustrated and time seems to lose its meaning, the young woman begins to question everything around her.

Written and directed by Kaufman, I’m Thinking of Ending Things is a slow, unraveling narrative clocking in at just over two hours long. It’s the definitive slow burn, a quiet mood piece that reflects upon the fragility of life, loneliness, and the need for connection. How that plays out is less linear and more mind-bending, and the answers don’t come easy. Jake’s family farmhouse makes for an eerie setting, and Collette has more than proved by this point she has the chops to unsettle in genre fare. But those looking for this particular story to crescendo into explosive terror will be disappointed; this isn’t that type of movie.

Everything is told through the Young Woman’s perspective; she’s the audience proxy and the key to deciphering this mind-bending feature. Her inner dialogue ponders the meaning of the strange events that transpire and helps to flesh out Jake’s character. This isn’t entirely her story, really, but something more significant. Something truly profound. Meaning this is a film wholly crafted around metaphor. Kaufman lays out visual clues to decode its meaning, many buried within the psychological horror elements. At a certain point, Kaufman leaves behind all the genre mechanics in favor of something far more poignant to drive the point home. In true Kaufman style, he’s trying to push you into feeling something specific. That tends to require a lot of patience.

There’s a high probability that the lengthy runtime and the abstract approach in I’m Thinking of Ending Things will prove divisive. Perhaps more so for fans of Reid’s chilling novel, though the melancholy truth remains the same in this adaptation. For those on Kaufman’s wavelength, his latest will likely wreck you. It’s triumphant in casting a spell of heartbreak and longing. It bides its sweet time in showing its hand, though it is not even then easily accessible. While it’s easy to classify Reid’s novel as a psychological horror, Kaufman only incorporates some of that in this genre-bender. That makes it tough to recommend from a horror standpoint, but in terms of pure filmmaking and craft, I’d be willing to bet this film earns a push come awards season. The performances, especially from Plemons, are tremendous, grounding the high concept mood piece. 

I’m Thinking of Ending Things releases on Netflix on September 4, 2020.

The post [Review] Charlie Kaufman’s ‘I’m Thinking of Ending Things’ is a Genre-Defying Mind-Bender appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Discussing his favorite horror movies growing up, Wolff mentions “One of my favorites is ROSEMARY’S BABY. It’s the one I always go back to. I think it’s a perfect movie and I’m so inspired by Cassavetes’ and Mia Farrow’s performance in that…I just think it’s like a masterpiece. That and THE EXORCIST and AMERICAN PSYCHO and all the classics. But I see all of them.”

When discussing HEREDITARY on the episode, Alex talks about filming some key scenes which many have regarded for their award-winning performances not only from him but also Toni Collette (like the incredible why-wasn’t-it-nominated-for-an-Oscar dining room sequence) as well as some self-inflicted facial trauma.

Wolff has not only proven to be an amazing actor, he’s also a brilliant up and coming filmmaker himself. In his directorial debut THE CAT AND THE MOON (available on digital now) he stars in, wrote, directed, produced, and scored a coming of age movie set in the heart of New York City. Though it’s not a genre movie, it’s a great film showcasing his directorial and acting chops, playing a rebellious high school teen coming to grips with the pressures teens face as well as dealing with the tragedy of his parents and their past issues which have affected him personally. The movie also stars Stefania LaVie Owen, Skyler Gisondo and Mike Epps.

On writing and directing his next film, Wolff shared this exclusive with the Boo Crew, “Well I wrote another script and I’m making it super disturbing. So it kind is a horror movie. I mean it’s really not a horror movie; it just really is disturbing. I’m just going to break the ice. Nic (Cage) is involved in it. He’s producing it. You guys got the official announcement. He’s going to produce it with me. He really responded to the script. We just have similar sensibilities. I’m just really excited about it. It’s psychological drama/thriller and Justice Smith is going to be starring in it. I’m really really pumped about it.”

Hail Paimon and listen to Episode 100 featuring Alex Wolff on The Boo Crew Podcast wherever you get your podcasts!

Follow Alex Wolff on:

Instagram: @alexwolffofficial
Twitter: @natandalex

Follow The Boo Crew on:

Instagram: @talesfromtheboocrew
Twitter: @talesfromtheboo

The post [Podcasts] The Boo Crew Talks Horror with ‘Hereditary’ Star Alex Wolff appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The series is based on Karin Slaughter‘s same-titled book from 2018, with Minkie Spiro (The Plot Against America) on board to direct Collette in all eight episodes.

“Written by Charlotte Stoudt, who serves as showrunner, Pieces of Her is set in a sleepy Georgia town where a random act of violence sets off an unexpected chain of events for 30-year-old Andy Oliver and her mother Laura (Collette). Desperate for answers, Andy embarks on a dangerous journey across America, drawing her towards the dark, hidden heart of her family.”

“Lovely, empathetic, modest – at first glance, Collette’s Laura Oliver seems to be the perfect Southern woman, devoted to her work as a speech pathologist and to her disaffected daughter, Andy. But when the ghosts of Laura’s past put her life in jeopardy, we discover there is more to Laura than meets the eye.”

The post Toni Collette Will Star in Netflix’s Thriller Series “Pieces of Her” appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Despite what the marketing would have you believe, this is not a contemporary American Murder on the Orient Express or Clue with bigger stars. Yes, it is chock full of A-listers, including Daniel Craig, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette, Chris Evans, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon and Christopher Plummer, but audiences going in expecting to see a locked room mystery with a list of celebrity suspects would do well to adjust their expectations.

Knives Out is, in fact, more Columbo than Murder, She Wrote (despite the latter making a brief TV appearance). The film opens with the death of famous – and fabulously wealthy – murder mystery writer Harlan Thrombey (Plummer), who has apparently slit his throat on the night of his birthday party. A week later his family, plus trusted nurse Marta (Ana de Armas), are called back to the house to answer the police’s questions. Also present? A mystery man who sits in the back of the room and taps on a piano key whenever he wants a specific question posed.

That man is famed private investigator Benoit Blanc (Craig). Decked out in a tweed suit and adopting a Southern accent that earns him the insult “Colonel Sanders, Foghorn Leghorn motherf*cker” later in the film, Blanc is observant and surprisingly philosophical when he needs to be. Blanc immediately deduces that the family is a viper’s nest of backstabbing relatives and petty rivalries, especially now that Harlan’s fortune is on the line. After acknowledging Marta’s outsider status among the family (despite their proclamations that she is “one of the family”) and discovering that the nurse has a literal physical aversion to lying, Blanc appoints her as his Watson and presses her into service helping him investigate the possibility of foul play.

The reality of Harlan’s death is not, however, the principal interest of Knives Out. In fact, the truth of his death (and the party involved) is identified near the end of the first act. The rest of the film documents the individual’s attempts to stay one step ahead of Blanc, with the mystery of who hired him – the “donut hole” (a supposedly open and shut case with a gaping hole in the middle) – lingering in the background. Of course, this is a still a mystery film with game-obsessed characters and a house replete with trap windows, so of course, there is still a convoluted explanation to be revealed at the climax.

For the most part, however, Knives Out is a very savvy adult comedy. While the film doesn’t feature nearly enough of its stacked cast, when the stars are allowed to come out and play, there is plenty of fun – and laughs – to be had. Johnson, who both writes and directs, clearly relishes the opportunity to craft a rogue’s gallery of despicable rich characters and each character has a clear, defining trademark that enables the actors to sink their teeth into their roles and make the characters pop.

With such a large cast it would be difficult to do everyone justice no matter the narrative structure, but the reality is that most of the actors appear in what amount to extended cameos. Thankfully everyone makes the most of their limited screen time. The standouts are Curtis as Linda, Harlan’s stern and intelligent eldest child who doesn’t suffer fools, slackers or BS. Another MVP is Collette’s Joni, the widowed step-sister to Linda and Walt (Michael Shannon), who has a Gwyneth Paltrow lifestyle brand called Phlam and a drawn-out Valley Girl speech pattern that immediately renders her a gay icon. Finally, there’s Chris Evans as Ransom, Linda and Richard (Don Johnson)’s entitled son who arrives mid-way through the film and immediately stirs the pot with quips, side-eye and insults.

If one adult gets short shrift, it is arguably Shannon (devoted fans might find his role a touch bland compared to the others). Younger cast members Jaeden Martell (of IT fame) and Katharine Langford (13 Reasons Why) as Jacob, Walt’s alt-right Nazi masturbating son, and Meg, Joni’s SJW College student daughter, respectively, are both underutilized. Still, they have more to do than Rikki Lindhome as Walt’s wife, Donna, or K Callan as Great Nana Thrombrey; the pair barely share a line of dialogue between them, despite appearing in nearly all of the family scenes.

The reduced screen time for the majority of the cast is because the film actually belongs to Marta, who spends the bulk of the film tagging along with Blanc. Marta is the film’s emotional center and director Johnson dedicates ample screen time via flashback to her relationship with Harlan. Marta is very obviously a kind, friendly counterpoint to the lonely old man’s horrible, money-lusting family. In this capacity, de Armas is solid as the “straight man” among the film’s hissably delectable family members, but spending so much time with Marta when the time could be spent with the film’s larger than life personalities is admittedly frustrating.

While (Rian) Johnson has an ear for witty, inappropriate and even profane humor, it should be noted that Knives Out is also pretty political in its critique of the rich and the value of immigration. This is a film that only features two POC, but one of them is the lead and the hero (sadly poor LaKeith Stanfield is window dressing). The Thrombeys value Marta so long as she doesn’t pose a threat to their inheritance, but not enough to know which country her family emigrated from. The fact that Marta’s mother is an illegal immigrant is also a major plot point, and a heated argument between Richard and Joni about how undocumented migrants are a plight on true “Americans” is ironically juxtaposed throughout the film with repeated refrains about how few family members have had to work for their living (or they got their start thanks to a hand out). The incredibly well-crafted script will undoubtedly be one of the film’s main selling features and there is no lack of jokes at the hypocrisy of the entitled rich assholes of the Thrombey family.

At its heart Knives Out is a comedy first, a mystery second and a sly political commentary about the 1% a distant third. Thanks to an impeccable script, game actors and plenty of laughs, though, the messaging goes down easy. This one is a crowd-pleaser.

This TIFF review was originally published on September 7, 2019.

The post ‘Knives Out’ Review – A Hilarious Crowd-Pleaser With Sly Political Commentary appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

This new clip from Knives Out (read our review) shows the ensemble cast being asked by two detectives to stay in town while they investigate a murder.

In Knives Out…

“When renowned crime novelist Harlan Thrombey is found dead at his estate just after his 85th birthday, the inquisitive and debonair Detective Benoit Blanc is mysteriously enlisted to investigate. From Harlan’s dysfunctional family to his devoted staff, Blanc sifts through a web of red herrings and self-serving lies to uncover the truth behind Harlan’s untimely death.”

The cast includes Jamie Lee Curtis and Toni Collette, for starters, with Daniel Craig, Christopher Plummer, Michael Shannon, Chris Evans, Lakeith Stanfield, Don Johnson, Ana De Armas, Jaeden Martell, Riki Lindhome, Frank Oz, Edi Patteron and Raúl Castillo.

Knives Out has been set for nationwide release Thanksgiving weekend, on November 27, 2019.

The post ‘Knives Out’ Clip Makes a Gentle Request for Everyone to Stay in Town [Video] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

While the first Knives Out (read our review) trailer enamored me with one of the greatest casts ever assembled, it didn’t do much in the sense of storytelling. This new one digs right in, building suspense around Rian Johnson‘s murder mystery in which everyone is a suspect.

The cast includes Jamie Lee Curtis and Toni Collette, for starters, with Daniel Craig, Christopher Plummer, Michael Shannon, Chris Evans, Lakeith Stanfield, Don Johnson, Ana De Armas, Jaeden Martell, Riki Lindhome, Frank Oz, Edi Patteron and Raúl Castillo.

In Knives Out…

“When renowned crime novelist Harlan Thrombey is found dead at his estate just after his 85th birthday, the inquisitive and debonair Detective Benoit Blanc is mysteriously enlisted to investigate. From Harlan’s dysfunctional family to his devoted staff, Blanc sifts through a web of red herrings and self-serving lies to uncover the truth behind Harlan’s untimely death.”

Knives Out has been set for nationwide release Thanksgiving weekend, on November 27, 2019.

The post Final ‘Knives Out’ Trailer Brings Out the Finger Pointing [Video] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Rian Johnson has assembled one hell of a cast for Knives Out (read our review), paying tribute to mastermind Agatha Christie with his own modern day murder-mystery. The cast includes Jamie Lee Curtis and Toni Collette, for starters, and the actors/characters all get individual spotlights today with vibrant, eye-catching character posters. Check ’em out below!

Head over to Rian Johnson’s Twitter account for individual character breakdowns.

In Knives Out…

“When renowned crime novelist Harlan Thrombey is found dead at his estate just after his 85th birthday, the inquisitive and debonair Detective Benoit Blanc is mysteriously enlisted to investigate. From Harlan’s dysfunctional family to his devoted staff, Blanc sifts through a web of red herrings and self-serving lies to uncover the truth behind Harlan’s untimely death.”

The ensemble cast includes Daniel Craig, Jamie Lee Curtis, Christopher Plummer, Michael Shannon, Chris Evans, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield, Don Johnson, Ana De Armas, Jaeden Martell, Riki Lindhome, Frank Oz, Edi Patteron and Raúl Castillo.

Knives Out has been set for nationwide release on November 27, 2019.

The post Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette and More Get Colorful ‘Knives Out’ Character Posters appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Del Toro is putting together one hell of a dream team of actors for this one, and THR reports tonight that Toni Collette (Hereditary) is the latest to come on board!

“Collette will play a mentalist named Zeena who mentors the protagonist.”

Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara will also star.

The post Now That’s a Power Duo: Toni Collette Joins the Cast of Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Nightmare Alley’! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Only a year ago, Ari Aster’s feature debut shook audiences with its haunting portrayal of grief and the inescapable family skeletons that lurk in the dark recesses of our mind. Hereditary wasn’t for everyone; its brand of horror lies more with slow creeping dread and bleak emotional destruction than a traditional horror structure. But even if Hereditary didn’t quite work for you, one major scene caught all of us with our pants down. An unexpected, brutal demise of a key character in Hereditary demonstrated Aster wasn’t afraid to kill his darlings in ruthless ways. He carries that forward in his sophomore feature, Midsommar (read our review). Both use visceral head trauma in scenes that mark the turning point for his protagonists, from relative safety to nightmarish descents into madness. And both films demonstrate that Aster has a talent for getting up close and personal with the gore in confrontational ways.

Hereditary begins with the funeral of Annie Graham’s (Toni Collette) mother. It establishes the Graham family, and the stronghold the deceased had over their lives. We learn that Annie’s relationship with her mother was tense at best, and that youngest child Charlie (Milly Shapiro), who was grandma’s absolute favorite, has a severe nut allergy. That’s only the start of the heavy foreshadowing Aster uses to broadcast the ominous journey ahead for the Grahams.

Charlie isn’t your average child; she’s withdrawn and socially awkward. She makes sculptures out of found objects, including decapitated heads of dead birds- also an important bit of foreshadowing. When Annie later forces her eldest son Peter (Alex Wolff) to bring Charlie along with him to a party, Aster makes sure to home in on symbols carved into a telephone pole their vehicle passes on a deserted stretch of road. Peter abandons Charlie quickly upon arriving at the party, ushering her toward a large chocolate cake in the hopes that it will keep her occupied. Except, it happened to contain nuts. Cue the anaphylaxis setting in, without an EpiPen in sight. A very scared Peter gets his sister back into the car and tries to rush her to aid while she gets worse in the backseat. She sticks her head out of the window for air at the precise moment Peter swerves to avoid a deer. One repulsive, skin-crawling second later, both Peter and the audience understands that Charlie- the very character we expected to be the focal point of the film- has been decapitated by that telephone pole.

Aster isn’t done, though. A shocked Peter leaves his sister’s body in the car for his mother to discover the next day, and eventually, we see Charlie’s rotting bug-infested head sitting on the side of the road. Later, when shit is hitting the proverbial fan, Annie discovers the headless corpse of her mother in the attic. But most disturbing of all is when Annie, possessed, removes her own head with a piano wire, the slow garroting movement speeding up as Peter looks on in horror. In Charlie’s treehouse, he finds his sister’s gnarly, decapitated head adorning a mannequin body, the headless corpses of his grandmother and mother bowing to it as the ceremony of granting Paimon a male body is finally completed.

Though Hereditary keeps its horror mostly relegated to atmosphere and psychological turmoil, Aster contrasts it with the stark depictions of gore and gruesome decapitations. Midsommar feels like a perfect complement in that way; the horror is much more psychologically based but the moments of gore truly stick out. Like Hereditary, Midsommar also uses shocking head trauma to mark a turning point in the story, albeit in a very different way.

Pelle brings his American friends back to his small, native Swedish village to show them how they celebrate their mid-summer festival. Everyone is warm and welcoming, but the very first ritual of many unsettles the Americans to their core- the self-sacrifice of the two village elders. After a ceremonious climb up steep cliffs, they open their arms to the sky and leap off, plummeting to their deaths. A large rock below shatters their body, making their death hopefully fast and painless. And it is for the elderly woman. But the man misses his mark, his body broken in ways nobody should, but he’s still alive. The Americans look on in horror and disgust as a line of villagers take turns bashing his skull in with a large mallet to put him out of his misery. It’s at this point that the outsiders finally understand something is very wrong with this place.

As always, Aster zooms in to show the head trauma in every intimate detail; the bloody pulp of viscera, the cavernous hole where the face once was, and bits of teeth leftover to indicate this was once a human being.

Midsommar tells a very different story from Hereditary, but Aster uses its extreme gore in much the same way.

Our own William Bibbiani asked Ari Aster in an interview about his penchant for brutal head trauma, an observation Aster hadn’t quite been aware of, “I don’t know. It may be best for me not to mine it, myself. But it’s a good question. People have brought it to me and it’s a very obvious thing that I somehow have not picked up on until now.” It’s also something Aster isn’t afraid of, adding, “No, if anything there’s something particularly satisfying about taking person’s head off or collapsing a head. I don’t know. It’s like there’s something visceral about it that, I guess, it’s when imagining a violent end, that’s a fun place to go for some reason. “Fun” being an elastic word. I wouldn’t say… If I think about other films that I’ve written that I haven’t made yet, there is more head trauma to come.“

Aster has an effective grasp on how to use gore; both films aren’t excessive in its use but when it is there it packs a hefty punch. Much of that has to do with how he lingers on those violent moments. Aster’s brand of horror leans more into the emotional than anything else, and the slaughter is a tool to enhance the unsettling tone. Midsommar and Hereditary are at opposite ends of the emotional spectrum, but both use head trauma in primitive, shocking ways that forces his characters to confront the true horrors ahead.

Midsommar is now in theaters everywhere.

The post [Spoilers] Examining Ari Aster’s Use of Head Trauma and Close-up Gore in ‘Hereditary’ and ‘Midsommar’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson has assembled one hell of a cast for Knives Out, paying tribute to mastermind Agatha Christie with his own modern day murder-mystery. The trailer has arrived today, and it promises a star-studded affair that will keep us guessing till the end!

In Knives Out…

“When renowned crime novelist Harlan Thrombey is found dead at his estate just after his 85th birthday, the inquisitive and debonair Detective Benoit Blanc is mysteriously enlisted to investigate. From Harlan’s dysfunctional family to his devoted staff, Blanc sifts through a web of red herrings and self-serving lies to uncover the truth behind Harlan’s untimely death.”

The ensemble cast includes Daniel Craig, Jamie Lee Curtis, Christopher Plummer, Michael Shannon, Chris Evans, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield, Don Johnson, Ana De Armas, Jaeden Martell, Riki Lindhome, Frank Oz, Edi Patteron and Raúl Castillo.

Knives Out has been set for nationwide release on November 27, 2019.

The post [Trailer] Rian Johnson Delivers a Classic Murder-Mystery With an All Star Cast in ‘Knives Out’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

I distinctly remember reading the first rumblings about the film after its premiere at Sundance in early 2018. I was enthralled by the early marketing posters— one in particular with the family home being half-flipped upside down, as each of the four family members resided in separate rooms, away from each other, not communicating. Another contained a family portrait in which each family member is somberly frowning, looking away from one another, visibly miserable to be near one another. Shortly after, I watched the inflicting 2-minute trailer and felt my stomach sink. I was hooked from day one— mainly, because I could relate to this tale.

Sure, my grandmother wasn’t the queen of a Paimon-worshipping cult, nor have I ever lost a sister from a telephone pole decapitation “accident.” However, for me (and any other viewer who did not necessarily grow up in a Beaver Cleaver-like household), I felt this family’s pain. I recognized that misery. I identified with that tension that permeated throughout their cold, wooden household. I knew what it felt like to be afraid of your own family’s unraveling.

While some may have walked away from the film remembering those pearl-clutching decapitation scenes or the disturbingly, lifelike miniature dioramas, what has haunted me the most over the last year about Hereditary lies within its intimate, relatable moments. After the climatic car accident, an ashamed Peter (Alex Wolff) comes home from school on his bike and pauses before entering his home. He breathes in deeply and nervously shakes his fists, as if mentally preparing himself before having to be anywhere near his grieving mother. Meanwhile, he fails to realize that Annie (Toni Collette) is avoiding him as well, as she hides in the parked car, ducked down in her seat, waiting to drive away, secretly contemplating her decision to attend another grief therapy session, because she cannot even bear to disclose this to her unsupportive family members. Been there, I thought to myself.

And don’t even get me started on the dinner table scene. When Peter notices his mother’s lack of appetite and provokes her into unleashing her bottled up emotions, I knew he was (deservedly) done for— because I too have witnessed that same form of motherly wrath from my own mother during our worst familial days. During my first viewing of Hereditary, I misread Annie Graham as a quasi-villain: she seemed to almost resent her children; I didn’t know what to make of her oft-detached style of parenting; I wasn’t sure if she was lying about how little she understood about her own mother’s sinister intentions. But in my subsequent viewings over the last year, I have completely changed my perception of Annie because she reminds me of my own mother. Like Annie, my mother (named Ann, coincidentally) cared so deeply for our crumbling family unit that all she wanted to do was turn negative situations into ones that could have “brought us together- or something!” while also “worried, and slaved, and defended” us. This poignant scene gave me perspective of how much my own mother sacrificed for us, even when she had her own versions of dinner table freak-outs.    

When I was around the same age as Peter is in the film, and my family hit an explosive precipice during its split up, I experienced moments like these constantly. Everything from the “fucking face on your face!” arguments, to unspoken tension, to awkward avoidances of another family member at all costs, to not being able to tell my own family how I felt about everything and just burying it like Annie does— my family home felt much like the Grahams’ home, and seeing that reflected so sincerely on screen gave me an odd sense of comfort. Finally, I thought, a film that really understands how to capture that brand of isolating, collapsing home life.

Judging from the waves of Internet dissections and other op-eds, I was far from alone in how this film has affected me over these last 12 months, which brings me to ask: What exactly is it about Hereditary that none of us have been able to shake, and what will its legacy continue to be within the horror genre? 

Its sense of realism

Fear is subjective, and whether or not you found its figures lurking in the shadows and meticulously inserted “cluck” sounds scary is your call. However, where Ari Aster struck gold is within the film’s unsettling sense of realism— the feeling that we, as an audience, could identify with the Graham family, as they reminded us so much of ourselves. Every moment containing screaming flare-ups, sleep-walking confessions of cruel honesty for things that could never been unsaid, choosing alcohol or pot to ease grief and depression, every questionable, yet human decision— Hereditary held up a mirror to our faces and forced us to look inward. Specifically, Peter’s choice to not look behind him in the backseat after we all knew that Charlie had just died is one of the most realistic depictions of a teenage character’s behavior that horror doesn’t always grasp. Acting out of fear instead of rationality is what makes his character’s decision so authentic. The Grahams, with their flaws and fleshed-out arcs, could be any of us, which makes the eventual fates that befall them all the more disconcerting. Hell, it even inspired us all to Google “Paimon” and discover that he is, indeed, an actual demonic entity that real cults worship.  

Its non-exploitative look at trauma & mental illness

While countless other genre films have used characters’ mental health issues for scares or shock value, Hereditary takes a more thoughtful and less exploitative approach. Even though I would argue that most of the (living) characters depicted in the film weren’t actually mentally ill and much of the supernatural elements were to blame, Hereditary has done an excellent job at commenting about how certain individuals take advantage of those suffering from any of these issues, as well as how dismissive some can be towards those who suffer from internal pain. Annie’s elusive mother Ellen manipulated her into thinking that mental illness was running in the family to cover up the fact that she literally was attempting to “put people inside” of her family members, hiding the truth from her daughter for decades. Sadly, Ellen’s lies likely led to an actual form of PTSD and repressed trauma for Annie, which eventually did get passed onto her own children, ironically. The film interestingly flips the old school notion that mental illness equals demon possession and flips it to actual accuracy. Additionally, while Steve (Gabriel Byrne) sometimes earns our sympathy for being the most level-headed of the unit, his dismissiveness of Annie and his repeated use of referring to her as “sick” instead of just listening to her and believing her is frustrating to us, because we know Annie is telling the truth. Like Rosemary’s Baby and Gaslight that came before it, Hereditary has reiterated the message to a contemporary audience that we still have a lot of work to do when it comes to how we treat those suffering from trauma.

It doesn’t give us a happy ending

Hereditary has distinguished itself amongst its peers in terms of how it breaks up, so to speak, with its audience. While films like Get Out, The Witch, and The Babadook let us down more gently and gave us (some) sense of hope in their conclusions, Hereditary doesn’t lie to us. Instead, it tragically yanks the rug out from underneath us and reminds us that sometimes things are not going to be okay. It chooses to give us a narrative resolution instead of an emotional one, which felt surprisingly satisfying to us because it’s so uncommon— even in horror. Aster has claimed that his intent was to make a film that depicts what happens when things do not work out for the best (a whopping understatement), which not only made the film more memorable, but oddly more cathartic. We felt like the film took us, the audience, more seriously by not giving us everything we wanted, because real life can often feel the same way. Much of the horror genre aims to help us conquer our fears, while Hereditary aims to help us process our emotions, like any other form of good therapy.

Its role in the “elevated” horror conversation

One of Hereditary’s most prominent legacies will perhaps be its role within the “elevated horror” conversation. In a decade filled with so many prestige genre films, Hereditary was surely not the first nor the last of its kind, but it has played a huge part in how we categorize and discuss films, particularly those that happen to be both artistic and horrifying. While horror fans have known how capable the genre is at exploring weighty themes for decades, it sure has been gratifying to remind the “I usually don’t like these kinds of movies, but I like this one” crowd that, yes, that film you just watched was indeed a horror film that you would normally look down upon. Hereditary may not have (infuriatingly) garnered any Oscar nominations this year, but as one of A24’s most successful films, it has helped catapult independent horror, while also raising our expectations for future genre films to come. We expect more from a film’s characters, metaphors, and performances, because films of Hereditary’s caliber have proven to us that the genre is more than competent to bring that to us.

Even though there is nothing inherently happy about you, Happy First Birthday, Hereditary. Thanks for helping so many others and myself make sense of our own traumas. We reject the trinity and pray devoutly to you, Great Ari Aster.

Aster’s sophomore film Midsommar will likely traumatize us all over again on July 3.

The post One Year of ‘Hereditary’: Its Personal Impact on Me and its Cultural Impact on the Horror Genre appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

“Anderson will play an unintended stowaway who, on a mission headed to Mars, accidentally causes severe damage to the spaceship’s life support systems.”

“The story revolves around a mission headed to Mars, where an unintended stowaway accidentally causes severe damage to the spaceship’s life support systems. Facing dwindling resources and a potentially grim outcome, a medical researcher (Kendrick) emerges as the only dissenting voice against the clinical logic of both her commander (Collette) and the ship’s biologist.”

Penna co-wrote the script with Ryan Morrison.

XYZ Films will produce alongside RISE Pictures and augenschein Filmproduktion.

The post Shamier Anderson Joins Toni Collette and Anna Kendrick in Sci-fi Thriller ‘Stowaway’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Well, except for that unexpected bright moment in the 2019 In Memoriam segment, in which a chosen clip for actor James Karen was pulled from The Return of the Living Dead!

When the Oscar nominations dropped, we thought it’d be fun to rewrite them with an all horror edition of nominees. Clearly, you all felt the same, as our comment section was filled with your votes and thoughts. We read them all and tallied the results. If there were an all-horror edition of the Oscars, these would be your 2019 winners…

Best Picture:

“Hereditary”
“Mandy”
“Annihilation”
“A Quiet Place”
“The Endless”
“Revenge”
“Halloween”
“Upgrade”

Winner: “Hereditary”

Lead Actor:

Nicolas Cage, “Mandy”
Logan Marshall-Green, “Upgrade”
Dan Stevens, “Apostle”
Matt Dillon, “The House That Jack Built”
Alex Wolff, “Hereditary”

Winner: Nicolas Cage, “Mandy”

Lead Actress:

Toni Collette, “Hereditary”
Madeline Brewer, “Cam”
Jamie Lee Curtis, “Halloween”
Tilda Swinton, “Suspiria”
Mathilda Lutz, “Revenge”

Winner: Toni Collette, “Hereditary”

Supporting Actor:

Linus Roache, “Mandy”
Wyatt Russell, “Overlord”
Vincent Colombe, “Revenge”
Oscar Isaac, “Annihilation”
Dylan McDermott, “The Clovehitch Killer”

Winner: Linus Roache, “Mandy”

Supporting Actress: 

Jennifer Jason Leigh, “Annihilation”
Milly Shapiro, “Hereditary”
Millicent Simmonds, “A Quiet Place”
Andrea Riseborough, “Mandy”
Judy Greer, “Halloween”

Winner: Milly Shapiro, “Hereditary”
Very close runner-up: Millicent Simmonds, “A Quiet Place”

Director:

Ari Aster, “Hereditary”
Panos Cosmatos, “Mandy”
Coralie Fargeat, “Revenge”
Demian Rugna, “Terrified”
Justin Benson and Aaron Moorheard, “The Endless”

Winner: Ari Aster, “Hereditary”

Best Screenplay:

“Hereditary,” Ari Aster
“A Quiet Place,” Bryan Woods & Scott Beck and John Krasinski
“Mandy,” Panos Cosmatos & Aaron Stewart-Ahn
Cam,” Isa Mazzei
“Anna and the Apocalypse,” Alan McDonald, Ryan McHenry

Winner: “Hereditary,” Ari Aster

Cinematography:

“Annihilation,” Rob Hardy
“Revenge,” Robrecht Heyvaert
“The Nun,” Maxime Alexandre
“Overlord,” Laurie Rose, Fabian Wagner
“Tumbbad,” Pankaj Kumar

Winner: “Annihilation,” Rob Hardy

Production Design:

“The Nun,” Jennifer Spence
“Hell Fest,” Michael Perry
“Apostle,” Tom Pearce
“Overlord,” Jon Henson
“The Strangers: Prey at Night,” Freddy Waff

Winner: “Overlord,” Jon Henson

Best Score:

“Mandy,” Jóhann Jóhannsson
“Halloween,” John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter, and Daniel Davies
“Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich,” Fabio Frizzi
“Suspiria,” Thom Yorke
“Hereditary,” Colin Stetson

Winner: “Halloween,” John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter, and Daniel Davies

Makeup FX:

“Suspiria”
“Terrified”
“Halloween”
“The Nun”

Winner: “Suspiria”

Creature FX:

“The Ritual”
“Annihilation”
“The Predator”
“Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich”
“Primal Rage”

Winner: “The Ritual”

Visual Effects:

“Annihilation”
“A Quiet Place”
“Overlord”
“The Predator”
“The House with a Clock in Its Walls”

Winner: “Annihilation”

Which categories would you like to have seen in the All-Horror edition of the Oscars? Are you satisfied with the results? Hereditary swept up a lot of awards this season; do you agree or disagree? Competition was stiff, and 2019 is on track to make the award season even tougher next year!

The post Oscar Winners 2019: Bloody Disgusting’s All-Horror Edition! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

We’re introduced at Miami’s Art Basel to an ensemble of a-holes: Josephina (Zawe Ashton) is a would-be art agent working under the imposing Rhodora (Rene Russo). Morf (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a powerful art critic, Jon Dondon (Tom Sturridge) is Rhodora’s protégé turned rival, and Gretchen (Toni Collette) is an art advisor for a wealthy client. They’re all equally terrible in their own special ways, and they come together when an elderly man dies in Josephina’s building, and she finds hundreds upon hundreds of astonishing paintings that he wanted destroyed after his death. Instead, Josephina and Rhodora start selling his work to immense acclaim and profit, with Morf, Gretchen and a half-dozen others all elevating their own careers through proximity to the late Ventryl Dease’s staggering work.

[Related] Read all of our Sundance reviews and coverage here!

Velvet Buzzsaw would have been a blast if it were only a sly send-up of the art world, but once Rhodora and company discover Dease’s dark history, and once his paintings start, well, literally killing people, it becomes a full-blown riot. This movie is so preposterous, so profoundly weird, just hilarious and merciless and black-hearted from beginning to end. It’s missing the weight of Nightcrawler, but that feels right, too, as does the fact that this downright silly movie is premiering at Sundance. In a movie where people mistake literal trash and actual corpses as art, it’s pretty fun that Gilroy’s passing off this trashy murder show as an art film.

But for all of its camp and absurdity, Velvet Buzzsaw is a terrific-looking film, with striking interiors and city vistas (and close-ups of hairless cats staring into koi ponds), and Dease’s art is genuinely arresting. Every single performance is hilarious and memorable, and aside from the above cast that includes the only three decent characters in the film: John Malkovich as a once-brilliant artist struggling to find his vision in his new sobriety, Daveed Diggs as a relentlessly vaping newcomer to the art scene, and Natalia Dyer as the unlucky assistant who keeps managing to get hired by people right before they’re brutally murdered by art.

Gilroy has a talent at telling surreal and occasionally even hallucinatory stories with absolute coherency. It won’t take long for you to buy into Velvet Buzzsaw’s nuttiness, and once you’re invested, you’ll have a hard time wanting to leave this dumb, bloody, bonkers world.

The post [Sundance Review] Dan Gilroy Goes Full Horror With ‘Velvet Buzzsaw’! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

At least one genre film snuck its way into next month’s ceremony as Paramount Pictures’ A Quiet Place, directed by John Krasinski, received an Oscar nomination for “Best Sound Editing” and will go up against Black Panther, Bohemian Rhapsody, First Man, and ROMA. I think the gimmick alone gives it the edge over its competition.

The Academy Awards will air live Feb. 24 at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET on ABC. I won’t be watching.

The post Toni Collette Snubbed, ‘A Quiet Place’ Receives Oscar Nomination for Best Sound Editing appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The mind-bending film is set in the contemporary art world scene of Los Angeles where big money artists and mega-collectors pay a high price when art collides with commerce.

“After a series of paintings by an unknown artist are discovered, a supernatural force enacts revenge on those who have allowed their greed to get in the way of art.”

Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Toni Collette, Zawe Ashton, Tom Sturridge, Natalia Dyer, Daveed Diggs, Billy Magnussen and John Malkovich star.

WATCH: This Ghostbusters II Mashup with Velvet Buzzsaw is Among the Best I’ve Ever Seen [Video]

The post Netflix’s ‘Velvet Buzzsaw’ Art Spray-painted in Blood appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Funny or Die wasted no time in creating a trailer mashup that wonders what happens when the Ghostbusters try to save Jake Gyllenhall from Vigo The Carpathian?

I love a good mashup, but I’ll be damned if this isn’t one of the best I’ve ever seen. The two films splice together perfectly, thanks to the editor, of course, and offer up what would be an absolutely bonkers supernatural thriller that goes as far as to introduce Hereditary‘s Toni Collette as a new villain. This is really good stuff…

The post This ‘Ghostbusters II’ Mashup with ‘Velvet Buzzsaw’ is Among the Best I’ve Ever Seen [Video] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

“The story revolves around a mission headed to Mars, where an unintended stowaway accidentally causes severe damage to the spaceship’s life support systems. Facing dwindling resources and a potentially grim outcome, a medical researcher (Kendrick) emerges as the only dissenting voice against the clinical logic of both her commander (Collette) and the ship’s biologist.”

Penna (Arctic) co-wrote the script with Ryan Morrison.

XYZ Films will produce alongside RISE Pictures and augenschein Filmproduktion.

The post Toni Collette Joins Anna Kendrick in Sci-fi Thriller ‘Stowaway’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

“My family put together a Hereditary themed birthday for me. It was amazing,” Monique wrote. “My very talented sister made the Charlie head in just 4 hours. And take a look at the nuts that they added to the chocolate cake! They also put a crown on me when I entered.#blessed #familycultgoals.”

For those interested, Monique’s sister is even offering up made-to-order Charlie heads over in her Etsy shop, so you too can have a Hereditary-themed party of your own!

Happy Birthday, Monique. And Hail Paimon.

My family put together a HEREDITARY themed birthday for me. #HailPaimon pic.twitter.com/5k2LENzy9S

— Monique (@parallelocam) December 21, 2018

It was amazing. pic.twitter.com/9WcSfDxmex

— Monique (@parallelocam) December 21, 2018

Seriously insane. You better believe I’m making a shrine for this in my bedroom. #Hereditary pic.twitter.com/0X0wsgRHxt

— Monique (@parallelocam) December 21, 2018

The post This Incredibly Cool ‘Hereditary’-themed Birthday Party Included a Gruesome Severed Head Centerpiece appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

While they both still need to be officially nominated, Collette kicked off her Oscar campaign by winning Best Actress at last night’s Gotham Awards. There are several award ceremonies leading up to the Academy Awards and we expect Collette is going to win a handful of those.

Here are last night’s results:

Best Actress
Glenn Close, “The Wife”
Toni Collette, “Hereditary”
Kathryn Hahn, “Private Life”
Regina Hall, “Support the Girls”
Michelle Pfeiffer, “Where is Kyra?”

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The pin, now selling in A24’s shop, was designed by artist Jen Lewis, who perfectly describes Collette’s instantly iconic screaming face from Hereditary as “the Mona Lisa of screams.”

Measuring 1″ x 6/8″, the pin is selling for just $10. Grab one today!

The post [Gift Guide] For ‘Hereditary’ Fans, A24 is Now Selling an Official “Screaming Toni Collette” Enamel Pin appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

As mother Annie Graham, Collette delivers a powerhouse performance that earned massive acclaim upon release. Collette chooses her genre roles carefully, but when she does, it’s always a profound expression of the terrifying facets of motherhood.  The Academy would be crazy not to nominate Collette for her uncanny ability to tear apart the scenery the way Ari Aster needed for his feature debut, but at the very least it solidifies her as a fixture of modern horror.

Her first foray into genre fare, The Sixth Sense, found her exploring the exhaustive trials of raising a child alone. A working-class mother in Philadelphia, Lynn Sear struggles to be there for her son emotionally while she’s off ensuring she can support him financially. But boy does she try. Collette imbues Lynn with a layered performance as the mother desperately trying to protect her son, but at a loss as to how. She deftly conveys the ferocity of a mother’s love while bearing the weight of the pressures of filling the role of both father and mother, all the while her socially isolated son is battling demons she can’t see or understand. It all builds into the film’s most emotionally charged scene, in which mother and son tearfully find common ground and understanding as Cole finally opens up about his ghosts. The moment Collette, hands to her heart, breathlessly asks, “Do I make her proud?” is the moment that clinched her Oscar-nomination.

In 2006, Collette would switch gears for the psychological thriller The Night Listener. Based on the novel inspired by the Anthony Godby Johnson suspected hoax, Collette plays the adoptive mother, Donna, of an ailing boy that strikes up a relationship with a radio show host. The further that relationship is explored, the more it seems as though the boy and Donna may be one and the same. This exploration of motherhood is very, very different, and Collette again approaches it with the nuance that she does so well. Donna is both relatable and vulnerable, but with an underling layer of crazy that Collette would harness again later.

Five years after would bring the remake of beloved ‘80s horror comedy Fright Night, one that was received well by critics largely due to the performances. The horror comedy allowed Collette to take a much more lighthearted approach to single-motherhood as Jane Brewster, mom to teen son Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin). A supporting role meant solely to raise the emotional stakes for the hero, Collette can’t help but make her character feel fully realized even when she only appears in a handful of scenes. Her flirtation with new neighbor Jerry (Colin Farrell) is a wry wink that teens aren’t the only one with raging hormones. It’s matched by her fighting maternal instinct when Jerry reveals his true nature, too.

Collette was given much more to work with in 2015’s Krampus, in a central role that let her have fun with campy humor. As Sarah Engel, Collette delved into what it would mean to be an A-type control freak during a hectic holiday season with family disfunction reaching a boiling point. Of course, there’s also Krampus, evil elves, and dark holiday minions to contend with, and the humor of it all appealed to Collette. It was in Krampus that she really got to stretch out her comedic chops, further demonstrating what a chameleon she can be.

Even being familiar with Collette’s work, especially in horror, none of it really prepares for what she brings to Hereditary. Even if its horror ultimately doesn’t work for you, it’s hard not to feel Annie’s grief on a visceral level. It’s not just grief, either, but pure terror, dread, love, desperation, and every emotion in between. Collette plays a mother so very against the concept of what motherhood should or is expected to be. In a cast of tremendous performances, that Collette’s is a standout is no small feat. She reels you in, makes you invest in her character’s story, and then chills you to the bone. An irony, considering horror terrifies the actress.

Lynn Sear, Donna, Jane Brewster, Sarah Engel, and Annie Graham may be all connected by motherhood, but they’re each such widely different characters that could have only been brought to life by a skilled actress like Collette. She explores the complexities of being a mother and the catharsis that horror can bring in a nuanced way that few actors possess. Horror is often ignored by the Academy, but she’s made it difficult to overlook Hereditary. It’s fitting, considering how it will bring her full circle to her role in The Sixth Sense. More than just a scream queen, she’s become the matriarch of modern horror.

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Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Lakeith Stanfield, Don Johnson and Ana De Armas also star.

Knives Out will be a “contemporary version of the locked door mansion murder mystery.”

Johnson wrote the script and will direct. Production begins in November.

The post Incredible Cast for Rian Johnson’s ‘Knives Out’ Gets Even Better With Addition of Toni Collette! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

While I’ve already watched Ari Aster’s arthouse masterpiece Hereditary several times on home video, the film is just now about to debut to Japanese audiences – just in time for Halloween. If you thought the film was overhyped here in the States, just wait until you see what they’re doing in Japan.

According to this tweet, audiences can purchase eyeshades – boasting the petrified eyes of Toni Collette – to put on when the movie gets too scary for them. eBay, here I come…

The post This ‘Hereditary’ Gimmick for the Japanese Release Would Make William Castle Proud appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Why Did Annie Try and Kill Her Son?

In the film, it’s revealed that Annie (Toni Collette) once poured gasoline paint thinner over her children. It becomes a recurring theme as her son, Peter (Alex Wolff), believes his mother hates him and wants him dead, while her husband, Steve (Gabriel Byrne), has never truly gotten over the traumatic experience. She’s the film’s protagonist and wants to save her family from whatever the hell is going on, so why would she also try and kill them. Aster explains that her subconscious knows exactly what is happening.

“I like the idea of divine intervention, but I saw it this way: Annie knows on some buried, suppressed level that her life is not her own, and she is the victim of unthinkable, Machiavellian scheming by her mother,” Aster revealed. “But she cannot look directly that this (let alone inquire about it). It would destroy too much of her inner structure. So, she lives in a kind of denial. But in her sleep, this part of her is acting out. She tried to set fire to her children to prevent the ‘resurrection of Paimon,’ as you say [in reference to the AMA question]. She even says, in the dream sequence, ‘I wasn’t trying to kill you, I was trying to save you.’ That said, it could also be read as Annie’s buried desire to kill her children taking hold. After all, she never wanted to be a mother. All her life she has simply being doing ‘the done thing.’ The role of a mother is never one she felt comfortable playing.”

Why Does Annie Saw Off Her Head?

The shocking finale takes place in the treehouse in which Charlie/Peter are introduced as Paimon. However, before the ceremony, Annie floats to the ceiling and saws off her head. Many felt this was part of the ritual, but it was actually a reflection of the grief of a mother’s loss. Interestingly, this was the film’s genesis.

“The first images that came to me (before writing) were Charlie’s head being knocked off by the telephone pole and Annie levitating while sawing off her own head (the concept of a mother so destroyed by what happened to her child that she has to do it to herself). I built the movie around that and the other.”

Paimon.

What’s interesting about Hereditary is that the cult isn’t trying to resurrect the Devil, but one of seven other demons. Aster explains why he chose Paimon and also reveals some other secrets, including why Steve goes up in flames instead of Annie when Charlie’s sketchbook is thrown into the fireplace.

“The devil has been done to death. Paimon was my favorite option that came up in my research. I’ve already been told by some that Paimon is an ‘obvious choice.’ Everyone’s a critic, it seems,” he jokes.

When asked about why Steve was set in flames when Annie throws Charlie’s sketchbook in the fireplace, Aster reveals that Paimon’s actually quite the jokester.

“I’ll say this: when Annie finds the book about Paimon, he is also described as being the ‘god of mischief.’ Steve going up in flames (re)announces the true, cruel logic of the film. Annie decides to sacrifice herself for her family, but that’s not her choice to make.”

As for the writings all over the wall, there’s a literal translation:

“Those are isolated pieces of an invocation spell that is suggested to be written all over the house. We only see three of these in the film, but there are many more (probably written behind furniture or otherwise hidden). ‘Liftoach Pandemonium’ has a special significance. It translates as ‘Open Up Chaos (or Hell).'”

Other Random Bits.

Aster confirms that the last shot of the treehouse was inspired by The Night of the Hunter.

Also, when asking if anything spooky happened on set, Aster shared this short anecdote.

“Yes. Alex Wolff told me not to say the name of William Shakespeare’s Scottish play out loud because of some superstitious theater legend. I smugly announced the name, and then one of our lights burst during the shooting of the following scene.”

MACBETH.

Hereditary is now available on VOD, 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack (plus Blu-ray and Digital), Blu-ray Combo Pack (plus DVD and Digital), and DVD.

The post Ari Aster Answers Some of Those Tough ‘Hereditary’ Questions appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

And while most horror films are content to dabble in the simpler fears (like being stabbed) the braver and more audacious ones try to tackle some decidedly more disturbing material. Which brings us to Hereditary, a remarkably refined and confident horror film from first-time feature director Ari Aster. In the simplest terms, it’s a wonderfully creepy haunted house story. But since there are lots of wonderfully creepy haunted house movies out there, there must be something that elevates Hereditary beyond the typical horror fanfare.

And boy is there.

Hereditary opens with a shot of a treehouse that somehow comes off like an optical illusion before the camera swings around and we slowly zoom in on the interior of a dollhouse. Already, the astute Mr. Aster is messing with our heads as he sets his tale of domestic dread inside an ever-spiraling maze of misdirection. We learn that an old woman has passed away and that her daughter, Annie Graham (Toni Collette), is having a hard time dealing with this situation, only not in the ways you’d expect. She’s more stressed out and guilty than actually heartbroken. (And soon we’ll find out why.)

Annie is supported by her low-key, loyal husband Steve (Gabriel Byrne) and — eventually — by her young daughter Charlie (Milly Shapiro) and teenage son Peter (Alex Wolff). But it doesn’t take long for the viewer to realize that this family is not actually in mourning. At least not any sort of mourning we normally see in movies. It goes beyond simple estrangement; we gradually get the impression that whatever went down between Annie and her late mother was more than just a typical family tiff.

And then things start getting weird. At first, it’s just some standard haunted house stuff: curious noises and mysterious visions lead to horrific accidents, shocking revelations, and all sorts of fantastically presented horror goodies that I won’t even come close to spoiling in this review. Suffice to say that, plot-wise, Hereditary feels like a brittle, fascinating family melodrama that’s been dropped into one of the most meticulously crafted “haunted house” movies ever conceived. Like the classic Poltergeist brought haunted houses into the contemporary suburban realm, Hereditary takes some very familiar genre trappings and modernizes them in the most compelling and enjoyably disturbing fashion.

Astute horror fans are of course well aware of the amazingness of Ms. Toni Collette. Between her work in Krampus, Fright Night, and The Sixth Sense alone she’s proven that she can bring warmth, wit, and humanity to the weirdest of horror tales. And here she delivers a force-of-nature performance that is simply staggering in its emotional intensity. (I’d call it an Oscar-worthy performance if the Academy bothered to watch indie horror films, so instead I’ll just say she’s amazing and move on.) As Annie’s calmly controlling husband, Gabriel Byrne is also great, but here he’s asked to play a character who barely seems to matter in his own house. It’s a quiet, subtle performance, but an excellent one all the same.

Character actor extraordinaire Ann Dowd pops up halfway through the film to play a small but integral role (she has a history with Annie’s late mom) but the less said about that thread the better. But voluminous praise is due to actors Alex Wolff (as Peter) and Milly Shapiro (as Charlie); not only is it difficult to find young actors this plainly talented, it’s even harder to get them to play “horror” so damn well. Wolff and Shapiro are asked to deal with some intensely scary material, and both of them deliver strong, intense, top-notch performances.

One is often willing to overlook a few minor technical missteps when analyzing independent horror features from brand-new directors, but fortunately, that won’t be necessary here. Not only has Aster proven himself to be a very crafty writer/director, but let’s just say he also “crewed up” really well. The cinematography (by Pawel Pogorzelski) is smooth, graceful, and eerily evocative of the horrors to come. The production design (by Grace Yun) is cold and sparse and (yes) creepy. Composer Colin Stetson provides a darkly ominous backdrop to all the freaky family turmoil. Oh, and the editorial team deserves high praise as well. Hereditary is not a short movie (it’s actually just over two hours long) but it’s so confidently constructed that it frequently seems to fly by at an expeditious clip. Plus it’s all off-kilter, which is cool. Most movies of this sort deal with a normal family in a scarily extraordinary house. The Graham family is not at all normal — in fact they’re all a bit weird in their own way — but then that just adds another interesting wrinkle to the arcane proceedings.

But what’s most striking about Hereditary is its ice-cold approach to a fractured family dynamic and how well it commands the viewer’s attention. Its approach to horror is equally frank and powerful; moments of shocking violence occur with very little warning, the story is littered with specific little details best described as “subtly off-putting,” and the film’s matter-of-fact presentation of angst, shock, and trauma are nothing short of chilling. It bears repeating: it’s borderline astonishing that something this multi-dimensional, dramatically hefty, and enjoyably scary could come from a first-time director. It’s clear that this guy grew up watching the thrillers of Nicolas Roeg, Roman Polanski, and John Carpenter, yet Hereditary never feels like an homage, a knock-off, or a loose remake of a horror movie you’ve seen six times. As any horror fan can tell you, it’s not easy to breathe new life into the old haunted house template, but it’s pretty damn exciting when someone does.

What’s probably most impressive about Hereditary is what it has to say about the modern (American) family unit. If you just want a smart, unpredictable, and unexpectedly austere horror story, there’s a lot to enjoy here. But taken also as a snapshot (or perhaps an indictment) of the ways in which a modern family is torn apart by lies, secrets, resentment, and their casual indifference to one another, Hereditary is one of the most powerful, memorable genre films of the past several years. And yes, one of the scariest.

Hereditary is now available on VOD, 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack (plus Blu-ray and Digital), Blu-ray Combo Pack (plus DVD and Digital), and DVD.

The post [Review] One of Horror’s Most Powerful Films in Years, ‘Hereditary’ Comes Home appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

[Read Also] Editorial: Hereditary and the True Horrors of the Grieving Process

“When Ellen, the matriarch of the Graham family, passes away, her daughter’s family begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry. The more they discover, the more they find themselves trying to outrun the sinister fate they seem to have inherited. Making his feature debut, writer-director Ari Aster unleashes a nightmare vision of a domestic breakdown that exhibits the craft and precision of a nascent auteur, transforming a familial tragedy into something ominous and deeply disquieting, and pushing the horror movie into chilling new terrain with its shattering portrait of heritage gone to hell.”

Toni Collette is nothing short of a shoe-in for an Oscar nomination for her outstanding performance.

The post ‘Hereditary’ iTunes Featurette Examines the Miniatures Metaphor, Family Trauma [Exclusive] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

While the film in itself is the only reason you need to pick up a copy, the 4k/Blu-ray/DVD releases all include deleted scenes. As you may recall, director Ari Aster revealed a 3-hour long cut, which won’t be included, but at least we’ll get to see some of the footage – nine scenes to be exact. Also included are both the “Cursed: The True Nature of Hereditary” Featurette and “Evil in Miniature” Photo Gallery.

[Read Also] Editorial: Hereditary and the True Horrors of the Grieving Process

“When Ellen, the matriarch of the Graham family, passes away, her daughter’s family begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry. The more they discover, the more they find themselves trying to outrun the sinister fate they seem to have inherited. Making his feature debut, writer-director Ari Aster unleashes a nightmare vision of a domestic breakdown that exhibits the craft and precision of a nascent auteur, transforming a familial tragedy into something ominous and deeply disquieting, and pushing the horror movie into chilling new terrain with its shattering portrait of heritage gone to hell.”

The post Three Tense ‘Hereditary’ Clips Put Toni Collette’s Oscar-worthy Performance on Display appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

[Read Also] Editorial: Hereditary and the True Horrors of the Grieving Process

“When Ellen, the matriarch of the Graham family, passes away, her daughter’s family begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry. The more they discover, the more they find themselves trying to outrun the sinister fate they seem to have inherited. Making his feature debut, writer-director Ari Aster unleashes a nightmare vision of a domestic breakdown that exhibits the craft and precision of a nascent auteur, transforming a familial tragedy into something ominous and deeply disquieting, and pushing the horror movie into chilling new terrain with its shattering portrait of heritage gone to hell.”

Toni Collette is nothing short of a shoe-in for an Oscar nomination for her outstanding performance.

The post ‘Hereditary’ Home Video Release to Include Nine Deleted Scenes! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Ari Aster‘s Rosemary’s Baby-esque horror drama, which follows a grieving family descending into madness, dropped only 48% in its second week of release, pulling in an estimated $7M for a domestic total of $27M. As Exhibitor Relations notes, in ten days, Hereditary has already passed The Witch, which topped out with $25M.

Despite the CinemaScore, Hereditary opened last weekend by “overperforming” at the box office with an estimated $13M, which was shockingly A24’s largest opening ever. I had suggested a $25M-$30M box office run, although it now looks to top $40M.

[Read Also] Editorial: Hereditary and the True Horrors of the Grieving Process

Overhype and CinemaScore be damned! I’ve talked about expectations versus reality a few times over the past week, but it’s hard to be angry at A24 for doing their job and selling the fuck out of this movie. Maybe once expectations die down, it’ll finally allow people to digest this infectious drama that’s more Rosemary’s Baby and Ninth Gate than The Exorcist (horrible comparison).

Outside of box office, A24 has to be excited about the film’s outlook on VOD and home video. Toni Collette is nothing short of a shoe-in for an Oscar nomination, which should propel the film’s home video numbers come next January/February. Shit, maybe they’ll even re-release it in theaters and we can all re-experience the film without all the hype and just focus on the performances?

Hereditary was being buzzed as the scariest horror film in years. Our own Fred Topel loved the film, calling it “psychologically and viscerally grueling,” while Trace proclaimed that it “rewards your patience with nightmare fuel.”

In the film also starring Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff, Ann Dowd, and Milly Shapiro:

“When Ellen, the matriarch of the Graham family, passes away, her daughter’s family begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry. The more they discover, the more they find themselves trying to outrun the sinister fate they seem to have inherited. Making his feature debut, writer-director Ari Aster unleashes a nightmare vision of a domestic breakdown that exhibits the craft and precision of a nascent auteur, transforming a familial tragedy into something ominous and deeply disquieting, and pushing the horror movie into chilling new terrain with its shattering portrait of heritage gone to hell.”

The post ‘Hereditary’ Possesses the Box Office Once Again and Tops A24’s ‘The Witch’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.