Halloween 2019: September 20th

Hereditary (2018)

Right now, horror fans and general cinephiles are embroiled in a debate over the term “elevated horror.” Some folks deride the term, saying horror doesn't need to be “elevated” and that the phrase is just a snobby way for critics to look down on the genre. Nevertheless, “elevated horror” is a catchy term for the current wave of buzz-generating, independently produced, high-brow horror that has led to raves among critics and fans. It would seem Ari Aster's “Hereditary” is the film that really heated up the debate, as it was too horrific to be qualified as anything but horror and too damn good to be ignored. Since then, fans and viewers have been arguing about the merits of a movie dubbed “emotional terrorism” and “this generation's Exorcist” right out of the gate.

Miniature artist Annie Graham's mother, Ellen, has just died. Ellen was a distant and harsh mother, leaving Annie pretty fucked up. She has always resented her teenage son, Peter, but dearly loves her youngest, the developmentally disabled Charlie. Following a tragic accident at a party, Charlie is struck dead and Peter is indirectly responsible. Annie sinks into full-on despair and the family starts to come apart... And that's before a bizarre supernatural ritual begins to turn the family's life into a living nightmare, plunging Annie and Peter towards a horrific destiny that was planned out years before.

After it terrified me in theaters, I was really curious how “Hereditary” would hold up on a second viewing, here at home. This time, I really appreciate Aster's precision as both a visual craftsman and a writer. Ellen's career as a miniature artist is reflected in the film's shots, as tilt-shift photography is used to make the sets and locations look like small models. Aster displays a Wes Anderson-like attention to set dressing and design, the cameras swaying through immaculately assembled areas that reflect the world of the characters and the film. Cross-fades are frequently used, one day fading into the next, to reflect the traumatized malaise of the Graham family. Knowing where the story is going this time, I also noticed how meticulously Aster sets up everything that will happen late in the film. Foreshadowing, in the form of a decapitated bird or a brief line about a nut allergy, is laid down liberally but subtly.

As fantastically constructed as “Hereditary” is, it is not a cold film. Rather, it's aflame with red hot, sobbing grief. This is a film all about the way, knowing and unknowingly, parents abuse their children. The group of Paimon worshiping witches engineering an occult ritual to resurrect their demonic lord is simply a delivery system for Aster's story of how emotional abuse is passed from parent to child. Annie's emotionally distant mother drove her brother to suicide and left Annie a mess. Similarly, her lack of maternal feelings towards Peter has already led to a quietly boiling tension between them. The death of Ellen and Charlie is simply the catalyst to unleash all that pent-up hostility. That level of ugly-crying, grief-ridden agony is what characterizes most of “Hereditary.” It's been a while since I've seen a horror movie with that much anguished wailing. When Annie discovers Charlie's death, when she is taken to a séance, when she blames Peter for his sister's death, when Peter is frightened by his mother invoking his sister's spirits: All these scenes are at the top of the emotional spectrum. Yet “Hereditary” is never histrionic because it roots itself in realistic feelings of devastating loss.

It is in this fertile soil that Aster grows some of the most utterly horrific sequences I've seen in a while. You think the movie must peak early, when a series of seemingly random event results in Charlie's horrifying accident. Yet Aster is just getting started, topping that moment quickly afterwards with a grotesque close-up on the remains of Annie's daughter. Annie has a nightmare, an exaggerated version of a sleepwalking incident from when Peter was a little kid that induces a skin-crawling unease. Alex has his own nightmare, beginning with seeing his sister's ghost and ending with grasping hands trying to rip his head off. This sense of anxiety keeps growing, more horrors heap atop each other, until the last act when the film goes absolutely ape-shit. The gross, the frantic, the surreal, and the sudden are all employed to send the audience into outright terror. It largely succeeds.

Being a film built upon shrieking emotional trauma, “Hereditary” easily could've been brought down by a graceless performance. Instead, an excellent cast completely on the film's wavelength was assembled. One can't undersell how hard Toni Collette Goes There as Annie. She acts with every pore on her face, sweating, weeping, screaming. Annie is someone so tightly wound that she can barely express herself without the edges starting to fray. We can see this in her group therapy scene. It's a performance of someone completely in crisis and its utterly captivating. The rest of the cast is certainly good too. Alex Wolf is excellent as Peter, a boy who has retreated into stoned doofiness to escape his familial discomfort. His reaction to the horrors he's exposed to are fantastically muted. Miley Shaprio gives the impression of someone genuinely off-center as Charlie. Gabriel Byrne accurately portrays a man who has been putting up with this shit for so long, he's been worn down into a perpetual gray mood.

Aster claims all his movies are comedy and moments like the group therapy scene, and a later one where Annie recreates Charlie's death as a miniature, reveal a certain absurd humor... Though you'd be forgiven for overlooking it. With a throbbing musical score and sound design that only amplifies the feeling of unease, “Hereditary” is a masterclass in generating fear in its audience. Granted, the film isn't quite as scary on second viewing, now that I know some of the things that are coming. I have to downgrade it from terrifying to merely extremely unsettling. This still leaves it as one of the most intense horror films I've ever seen and easily a high light of the genre here in the 2010s. [9/10]

The Black Room (1935)

In 1939, Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone would star in “Tower of London” for Universal, a costume drama about royal betrayal and murder that nudged up against the horror genre due to its grim atmosphere and death-filled story. This wasn't the first time Karloff had lent his name to a gothic thriller, pushing it further into the realm of horror. (Nor would it be the last.) In 1935, when Karloff was contracted to Columbia, he would star in “The Black Room.” It's a film I've read about for years but had somehow never managed to see. Being a fan of Karloff and gothic melodrama, I decided this Halloween season was finally the time to enter “The Black Room.”

In the late 18th century, Baron de Berghmann's wife births him not one but two sons, twin boys. This is not a cause for celebration. The de Berghmann family is haunted by a curse that the younger brother shall always kill the eldest brother in the Black Room, the family castle's torture chamber. Hoping to prevent the prophecy from coming to pass, the Black Room is sealed up. The two brothers grow up into polar opposite. Gregor, who stays and rules as the baron, is cruel, casually murdering young girls from the village and making the locals hate him. Anton, who travels abroad despite his crippled right hand, is kindly and sweet. Upon returning to the town, Gregor immediately hatches a plan to murder Anton, tossing his body into the Black Room's pit where he keeps all his victims, and assumes his identity. This doesn't go exactly according to plan.

“The Black Room” is mostly worth seeing for Boris Karloff's dual performances as the brothers. In what was probably an impressive effect for 1930s audience, the two Karloffs share screen time several times in a fairly seamless manner. As Gregor, Karloff gets to vamp it up to villainous heights. He sneers and plots, acting like an absolute cad and evil-doer at every opportunity. His best moment, and maybe the highlight of the entire film, is when he ignores the advances of a comely maiden in favor of rhapsodizing about a pear. As Anton – the film does earn some points by defying expectations and making the crippled twin the good one – Karloff affects that feathery, grandfather tone of his. He approaches everyone with kindness, to the point that he's ignorant of his brother's obviously evil ways. It's a good use of Karloff, as few golden age actors were equally capable of being menacing and sweet.

Beyond that, there's not too much to recommend about “The Black Room.” The movie does have a great setting. The castle certainly has its share of ominous rooms and corners, the best of which is the staircase Gregor gets stuck in while disposing of a maiden's body. There's also a pretty interesting cemetery, with a prominently placed statue of Christ on the cross, that shows up a few times. Otherwise, I was disappointed on how low on shadowy gothic atmosphere “The Black Room” was. The titular torture chamber only puts in a few appearances and the castle is pretty brightly lit. Unsurprisingly, “The Black Castle” also includes the love triangle you'd expect. “Svengali's” Marian Marsh plays Thea, a virginal maiden that is inheritor to a considerable wealth. Both the de Berghmann twins wish to marry her but her heart belongs to Robert Allen's bland hero. Naturally, he's there to sweep her off her feet at the end. Pretty yawn-inducing.

Can “The Black Room” even really be called a horror movie? There's definite murder in the movie, though most of it occurs off-screen. There's lots of threats of torture but very little gruesome acts occur. The pit of dead bodies is probably the coolest, spookiest element of the movie and it only appears a few times. Once Gregor executes Anton, it's hinted that his ghost may return to fulfill the prophecy. Instead, the brother's revenge happens in a more ironic but totally non-supernatural fashion. And if you really want to nit-pick, I guess you could say the entire Evil Twin premise belongs somewhat to the horror genre. For the most part, if it wasn't for Karloff starring in the lead roles, “The Black Room” probably would not be remembered as a horror flick.

I”m tempted to say maybe director Roy William Neill just wasn't suited to this genre. Yet Neill would later direct “Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman” and eleven of the fourteen Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movies, so clearly spookiness and foggy cobblestone streets were not beyond him. For Boris Karloff fans, “The Black Room” is absolutely worth seeing as the horror icon is delightful in the twin roles. Beyond that, sadly, the movie is utterly forgettable. If this was the back-end of one of the late night classic horror double features I use to watch on cable on weekends, I almost certainly would've fallen asleep through it. [6/10]

Tales from the Cryptkeeper: Game Over

If you know your comics history, you know “Tales from the Crypt” was just one of several horror series EC Comics published. Its other horror titles, “Vault of Horror” and “Haunt of Fear,” had colorful, pun-spewing hosts of their own: The Vault-Keeper and the Old Witch. The characters frequently crossed over. More than one animatronic host was likely outside the budget of HBO's “Tales from the Crypt” but kiddie spin-off “Tales from the Cryptkeeper” had the benefit of being animated. So our first season two host segment has the Cryptkeeper getting a rude visit from the Old Witch, resulting a tidal wave of puns from John Kassir. Which I, ya know, found delightful. (The end of the episode introduces the deep-voiced, scientifically-minded Vault Keeper, who isn't as amusing and causes the schtick to get a little too slap-stick-y for my taste.)

The host segment shenanigans take up so much time that the actual story feels a bit like an afterthought. “Game Over” follows a pair of teen boys who skip school to spend all day playing video games. Soon, the various monsters they fight in their games leak into reality. The moral here couldn't be more heavy-handed. The kids even vanquish the monsters with sporting equipment, furthering suggesting how they need to get outside and play. However, the monsters – which include a mace-wielding Jason expy and a floating Grim Reaper – are pretty darn cool. Moreover, the story has a hilariously nonsensical twist ending that I definitely did not see coming. [7/10]

Forever Knight: Killer Instinct

The first season of “Forever Knight” – the original vampire becomes a cop to seek redemption show – ended on a cliffhanger. Nick Knight's vampire dad, the thought-dead LaCroix, was actually alive. Season two picks up where this thread left off. “Killer Instinct” features a vigilante going around Toronto, killing drug dealers by strangling them with a latex glove. A cop is suspected. LaCroix begins to frame Nick for these crimes, in hopes of disrupting his quest to become mortal. While Nick ends up in jail, other cops suspecting he's responsibility for the murders, partner Schanke and coroner best buddy Natalie work to clear his name.

As has quickly become the norm for “Forever Knight,” the mystery of the week is utterly disposable. The reveal of the killer's identity is just kind of bluntly dropped near the end, leading to an uninspired chase scene. What's more interesting is the relationship between Nick and his friends. It seems Schanke is coming dangerously close to figuring out Nick is a vampire. Or at least he would, if he wasn't a bit dense. Also amusing are the comic relief scenes of Schanke kissing up to the new police chief, Captain Amanda Cohen replacing season one's Captain Stonetree.

And, naturally, the vampire stuff is fun too. The show's explanation for how LaCroix returned after being staked in season one boils down to "He got better." However, I don't blame the show writers for bringing him back, as Nigel Bennett is so delightfully villainous in the part. The flashbacks go into Nick's origins in a little more detail, showing the connection he has with his sire. It's a solid episode to start the season off with, even if that B-plot is pretty weak. [7/10]