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two months pass...
I was determined to read this entire thread before commenting because I didn't want to just reiterate what others have said and also because I always think it's rude to just barge into a long thread you haven't read and just start pontificating. Which is why it took me a year to return to this thread and post something! There are some really great insights above, learned a lot from reading the whole thing. But I just re-watched and wanted to comment on a few things:
Maybe the most true-to-life depiction of the psilocybin experience I've seen on film
The whole 'I don't want to meet new people' is perfect psylocibin talk
― frame casual (dog latin), Monday, July 15, 2019 6:50 AM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink
This is otm, and I agree that it’s the most accurate depiction of a trip I’ve seen on film. Now, I know nothing about making films, so for all I know this simulation of a drug high is to fledgling filmmakers what the “looper pedal” is to people who don’t know anything about guitar effects (“but there’s only one of her! How is she doing that?”) but I thought it was really well done.
I also thought to myself that all of them should have realized they were doomed at the antestuppa ceremony. No community would let outsiders see that, for fear of them fleeing and exposing them. You either die or you become a Horge!
― Fuck Trump, cops, and the CBP (Neanderthal), Sunday, July 21, 2019 3:58 PM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink
Yeah, to me this was obvious. Like there’s no way any of the outsiders would be permitted to leave after witnessing what they did, which is why at some point Pelle is like “sure, you guys can totally write your thesis about this place, go nuts,” because he knew there was no way they’d live to tell about what they saw.
I also want to echo the praise of the sound design. The way sound for Dani sort of gets kind of muffled and narrowed when the elderly woman jumps rang really true to me.
My other very unusual reaction to seeing this film was that I – again, a person who knows literally zero about filmmaking – feel this compulsion to want to EDIT the damn thing. Like, I feel like if you lost, say, 30 minutes of this film by omitting or abbreviating certain scenes that either went on too long or were gratuitous or excessive, it would be a much better film. Many of you have mentioned the recurring shots of the smashed faces, and this is a great example, but I also feel like one or two shots (maybe through the crack in the door?) of the, err, fertility ritual would have sufficed. I've never had this kind of reaction to a movie before: not "this should have been edited better," but "I want to edit this into my perfect version of the film."
Anyway I think I’m ready to finally see Hereditary now
― Paul Ponzi, Sunday, 1 November 2020 14:15 (three years ago) link
eight months pass...
rewatched this last night. really held up.
- Christian's low-key obnoxiousness was felt much more strongly this time around. He's a true coward and there are very few scenes where he's not squirming around trying to cover his tracks, pass on blame, elide truth or just plain gaslighting Dani and his friends. Still, I don't know if he quite deserved to burn to death in a bear suit while physically drugged.
- The film never lets up, does it? Or at least for the first two-thirds. It's just relentlessly twisting and turning in terms of plot, mood and style. The opening scenes are just so intense, truly upsetting. Then we actually get to the vilage and the mood lightens for just a short while as Will Poulter does the best depiction of someone on shrooms I've ever seen. In fact I'd maintain that these are the best screen portrayals of the psychedelics I've seen on screen.
- The ending could have been shorter. By the time the denouement plays out, the film's most shocking and arreasting scenes are long gone, and whatever's left feels relatively light, almost comic (in the darkest possible way). The communal singing and groaning, the bear suit - these are entertaining ideas but they elicit a morbid chuckle unlike the opening sequence and the cliff diving scenes which definitely don't. These final scenes feel like they're tipping ever so slightly into farce or a parody of folk horror.
- That said, I think complaints of the film containing too much foreshadowing is missing the point. Yes, it's obvious how this narrative arc is going to play out, but this is very much about the ride
- Despite my complaint that the film tips into farce towards the end, save for a few of Poulter's lines I seem to remember it being a lot funnier the first time around.
- Also, but what a great cast. Flo Pugh is obviously fantastic, but everyone else (including the bit-parts) are so perfectly acted. They didn't do enough with William Jackson Harper though.
one year passes...
two weeks pass...