April 26

Ari Aster, writer and director of the film, talks about his influences and his experience premiering Hereditary at Sundance Film Festival, in this article from the LA Times:

Major influences: “As far as the camera, I was thinking about [Stanley] Kubrick and ‘The Shining’ and I was thinking about Peter Greenaway, who is a filmmaker I actually find really upsetting and I don’t love his films but I do find them very haunting. He does something deeply clinical and artificial in a way that really disturbs me. Nicolas Roeg is someone I was thinking about tonally. Mike Leigh is maybe my favorite filmmaker. I definitely showed a few of his films to the crew before we made the film to get them in the spirit of what I want to do. And there were a lot of Japanese ghost movies that were on my mind, like ‘Kwaidan’ and ‘Onibaba’ and ‘Ugetsu’ — Mizoguchi is a filmmaker I’m kind of obsessed with.”

Sundance experience: “I think it’s any American filmmaker’s dream to have their first film premiere at Sundance. I was a nervous wreck before we screened the film. The visual effects weren’t finished and the sound wasn’t finished. It just felt very unpolished to me and I was kind of obsessed by those things. So first and foremost it was a huge relief. To watch it with an audience who were really in the grip of the film — there were people screaming and leaving the theater and people audibly upset throughout — it was really a wonderful experience.”

Ha ha! I suppose when you have made a horror film, screaming and upset people is the ultimate goal, so yay!

Ari Aster
Image courtesy of Diamond Films

Toni Collette is a versatile, gifted, and very busy actor, drawn to an astonishing array of projects and roles (United States of Tara is a great example!). I don’t think she is given to much hyperbole, so I take her words below seriously.

From Entertainment Weekly

Collette… says the experience of shooting Hereditary reminded her of making a certain M. Night Shyamalan’s supernatural box-office sensation. “On The Sixth Sense, there was some definite feeling we all had that it was going to somehow be special,” she recalls. “And it did actually come to pass that the film did really well and has been loved by a lot of people. Similarly, on Hereditary, I have been reluctant to say it, but there was a similar sense of something special. It was coming from some serious sh—, and deep focus, and hard f—ing work. It did definitely have a sense of being somehow — it’s going to sound like I’m up myself — but important to cinema.”

Toni Collette in a scene from Hereditary

And, in case you are not shivering enough already, here is more information about Charlie’s dolls.

From Vice.com’s report on the screening of the film as SXSW:

A24 went on to post photos of the whole collection of dolls on Twitter, and each of the 15 freaky figurines is uniquely weird in its own way, including one particularly fucked-up guy who has a wine cork for a hand and a plastic pumpkin face permanently stuck mid-howl. They look like the kind of haunting, handmade dolls that Sid from Toy Story would sell if he grew up and opened an Etsy shop.

And of course, an Etsy Shop is just what Charlie did. Perfect (see below for more about that).

Image from A24

Hereditary has a Metacritic score of 89 – Universal Acclaim at this time. Our anticipation level is off the charts now and we still have a few weeks before it premieres in theaters! But be patient. Horror done well is a rare thing and worth the wait.

April 18

2018’s Most Anticipated Summer Movies, a list from The Hollywood Reporter, includes Hereditary, Gabriel’s new horror film, which continues to intrigue audiences at festivals–next stop is the Overlook Film Fest in New Orleans this weekend–and inspire trailer reactions and tons of anticipation!

Now we have the second trailer. It offers a close-up of Charlie, the young daughter in the film, portrayed by Milly Shapiro. Charlie makes toys, in addition to making us very afraid, and it may be that she is the central character of this story. We will not know, of course, until June 8, when the film premieres in the USA, and June 15, when it opens in UK theaters. Until then, enjoy the goodies below and stay tuned for more!

New Trailer

Charlie’s Etsy Store

Charlie may not be real, but her toy store is. Crafts by CharlieG is now available on Etsy. I don’t know exactly what you will find there, because all her store’s items have sold out already, but it seems Charlie makes dolls and other “toys,” and you will find new ones there once per week. So visit early and often and you, too, can have something from Charlie, which might be a good thing or perhaps it will just give you the shivers…

From an earlier posting, you may recall that writer/director Ari Aster found inspiration for his film’s visuals on Pinterest. And now we are seeing very creative marketing for the film using Etsy. What else do Mr. Aster and film company A24 have planned for us? Be afraid!

Interviews

Obsession

Proceed with caution; there may be spoilers ahead and more information about the film than you really want

Analyzing trailers is what fans do when the wait for the film seems agonizingly long–or they just want to scare themselves to death before they even see the movie! Some trailer analysis videos are silly. Others try too hard and end up theorizing ahead of the facts.

This is the best trailer analysis video for Hereditary so far. It is a great example of painfully focused attention to detail. Tiny details. The things you miss in a 2-minute trailer. Because you don’t use a microscope on YouTube videos. But this guy does and oh, it hurts so good. Is he right? Is he wrong? No matter. It is fun to pick out the hints of possible things to come.

I would add that writer/director Ari Aster is, by all accounts, someone devoted to the details, so I think he would enjoy all of this microscopic attention to the TRAILERS for his first feature length film. Imagine the dissection that will take place when the actual movie is released!

There will be more, no doubt, as the buzz for Hereditary continues to grow, so stay tuned!

One Comment

  1. Great compilation of stories about this fascinating film. Thanks Stella.

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