BlacKkKlansman ★★★★

Words & Illustrations by Mark Holland

 

Spike Lee has always made films that have managed to perfectly capture the mood and the attitudes of the time that they’re released, so in the era of Trump’s America, it seemed an odd decision for the iconic director to go and make a buddy-cop thriller that’s set in the seventies. But being Spike Lee, there’s a lot more to it than that and despite it’s period setting; it still feels very urgent, politically charged and incredibly relevant.

BlacKkKlansman has been hailed as a return to form for Lee and has been eagerly awaited since it premiered at Cannes, where it was well received and took home the Grand Prix. It features the true story of two cops that managed to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan, which would make it sound all very Mississippi Burning, if it weren’t for the fact that one of these cops was black. The cop in question is undercover detective Ron Stallworth, played by John David Washington, who is then subsequently played by his white partner (Adam Driver), for obvious reasons, when he has his face-to-face meetings with the Klan. The two form a great pairing; Washington and Driver are really good at capturing the conflicted feelings about their jobs and their identity (Driver’s character is Jewish) and the duo have some great chemistry.

The first half of the film is a pretty straightforward and thoroughly entertaining cop drama; it’s gripping as well as being really funny and draws you in to an engaging story that you can’t believe was based on true events. Some of the characters are painted in very broad strokes like the very racist cop or the blundering members of the KKK, but their idiocy does help to highlight how dangerous it is when these idiots actually start to take some form of action.

Entering the second half, the film undertakes a radical change of tone during a scene that contrasts two meetings, one with the white supremacists and another with the local college’s black student union. The merged chants of both white power and black power are overlaid in a powerful scene that really contrasts the differing ideologies behind both political slogans. From there on in, you really start to feel the full force of Spike Lee’s anger and it feels as though he’s using the cop-drama as a platform to directly address Trump.

He isn’t one for subtlety when it comes to putting his message across and there are a few very on-the-nose references to the current president that aren’t so much as a wink to the audience as a jab to the sternum. Overt references to modern political climates in films set in the past can feel jarring and distracting, but in BlacKkKlansman, the parallels he manages to draw are frighteningly accurate which make them all the scarier. It’s a film that feels very important and the final shots that feature recent clips, from Charlottesville and Trump’s subsequent response, show how prescient these issues remain and seeing them in the context of this film makes them so much more affecting than they would otherwise be on the news.

Despite the very clear message, there are still several grey areas that Spike has left to provoke conversations and there are a lot of the contrasting opinions, reminiscent of Do The Right Thing. BlacKkKlansman is an incredibly stirring film that really shakes you and forces you to think about important issues and a solid buddy cop drama as well.

Best Films of 2017

A Holfilm countdown of the top 20 films released in UK Cinemas during the previous year.

20. Logan Lucky

19. The Killing of A Sacred Deer

18. Blade Runner 2049

17. The Death of Stalin

16. Star Wars: The Last Jedi

15. A Ghost Story

14. Toni Erdmann

13. Baby Driver

12. T2: Trainspotting

11. Raw

 

10. The Beguiled

Sofia Coppola’s steamy southern-gothic takes place in the midst of the civil war. It’s a tantalising affair centred on Colin Farrell’s wounded soldier. He’s managed to escape the drudgery of war and found himself held up in the comfort of a straight-laced all girls’ school in the heart of Virginia. The school isn’t short of a few attractive women that haven’t seen a man in a long time and what starts out as a dream come true for the corporal soon turns out be a lot more volatile than he first seemed. Farrell is brilliant, practically licking his lips as he lays on the charm as the fox-like soldier as are Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning and Nicole Kidman, who all put in very complex performances and prove they’re not the prey he had them down for.

 

9. Get Out

A great modern horror, heavily influenced by classics of the genre like Rosemary’s Baby and The Invasion of The Body Snatchers, that stands up with the best of them. Get Out uses classic horror tropes to tell a story about very modern themes and moulds them in such a way that it feels timeless. It has only been out for a year and already feels like a classic that will be talked about for years to come. Not only a hit with the critics, but a huge commercial success and won first-time writer/director Jordan Peele an Oscar for best original screenplay. A great and really emotive central performance from Daniel Kaluuya anchors the film as he takes the horrifying trip to meet the parents from hell. ‘Give me the keys Rose’ will be giving everyone goose bumps for a long while to come.

 

8. The Handmaiden

A mysterious erotic thriller from Oldboy director, Park Chan-wook, The Handmaiden is a labyrinthine maze of a film, full of twists, turns, shocks and second-guesses. It is a story that has been adapted from a novel set in Victorian Britain, but the move to Korea under Japanese rule serves it nicely and the setting makes for some gorgeous architecture and costumes. The plot is as intricately detailed as the set designs, as are the performances, which hold their cards extremely close to their chests until the rugs are consistently pulled from under your feet.

 

7. Dunkirk

Only Christopher Nolan would have had the bonkers idea to try and mess with the idea of time distortion in a WW2 film. Dunkirk is a big budget war film that’s far from conventional and its all the better for it. We’re told three simultaneous stories at the same time: at land, at sea and in the sky, and each take place in different timeframes. Nolan is the master of making big, intelligent blockbusters and Dunkirk, with the help of Hans Zimmer’s pulsating score, creates a truly gripping edge-of-your-seat drama that’s more of a desperate escape film than it is about defeating the Germans.

 

6. Moonlight

The deserved 2017 Oscar winner that gave us a tender and sensitive portrayal of the type of character that isn’t usually afforded one on screen. It’s masterfully told in 3 parts, from when our protagonist is a skinny child, through to a thoughtful teenager and then finally as a big, muscular man. There’s a great scene early on where little Chiron gets taught how to swim by his father figure played by Mahershala Ali. Director, Barry Jenkins shoots the ocean beautifully and manages to retain this feeling of lulling waves throughout, making it a soothing and considered coming-of-age story that’s really well directed and has a great rhythmic flow.

 

5. Mother!

An absolutely mental film that defies any sort of genre classification, what starts off as a gripping family drama quickly tips into horror before descending into such chaotic ridiculousness that it borders on comedy. A very explicitly allegorical film about a woman (known only as Mother), her perfect house, her controlling husband and her soon to be born baby. Darren Aronofsky shoots the proceedings almost entirely from the point of view of the mother, he does so in a way that you can never tell what exactly is going on, or the scale in which things are escalating. Never have I seen a film before that’s managed to capture so well the feeling of a waking nightmare. It’s a film that you’ll either love or hate, but it grabs you by the skin of your neck and doesn’t stop shaking you for its 2 hour duration and then carries on doing so for the next month or so as well.

 

4. La La Land

A wonderfully uplifting musical that won the academy award for best film for all of about 2 seconds. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are perfectly cast as the wannabe jazz musician and actress couple trying to make it in the city of stars. La La Land uses huge extravagant musical numbers to explore very down to earth themes. The songs are great and somehow feel very natural and modern whilst also capturing the essence of the big Gene Kelly-esque musicals of the 50s. La La Land is a magical movie with a wonderful ending that completely leaves you floating away.

 

3. Call Me By Your Name

If you watch films for escapism, then Call Me By Your Name, Luca Guadagnino’s gorgeous Italian romance is the sun-drenched masterpiece you can’t help but fall in love with. It’s the 1980’s set account of Timothee Chalamet’s 17-year-old Elio and his love affair with an older man during a scorching-hot summer as they ride bikes, listen to music, swim in rivers and eat questionably sourced peaches. Every frame is like a work of art and it must have done wonders for Northern Italy’s tourist board. In his previous film, A Bigger Splash, Luca gifted us with the joy of seeing Ralph Fiennes dancing poolside to The Rolling Stones, but here he goes one better, in the form of the potent cinematic cocktail that is: Armie Hammer, a loose fitting blue shirt and The Psychedelic Furs.

 

2. The Florida Project

A bright pastel-coloured look through the eyes of a child living in a motel on the outskirts of Disneyland. The Florida Project, like Sean Baker’s previous film Tangerine, manages to offer a wonderfully intimate and sympathetic look at characters on the fringes of society. And like Tangerine, The Florida Project is a film that doesn’t seem to be about much and will then catch you off guard with a serious emotional sucker punch. Willem Dafoe is incredible as the motel’s weary manager, as is 7-year old Brooklyn Prince and her mother played by Bria Vinaite, who Baker cast from Instagram. Baker deals with very dark themes that are made all the more engaging given they’re told through a child’s perspective. The ending is one of the most heart-wrenchingly emotive climaxes of recent years, which had me blubbering like a child all the way through the credits.

 

1.  Good Time

An exhilarating white-knuckle ride through the streets of New York with Robert Pattinson’s small time crook, Connie Nikas, as he struggles to stay one step ahead of the law following a bank heist gone very badly wrong. Pattinson has the sparks flying in an exhilarating performance that channels the intensity of De Niro and Pacino in the muscular crime films of the seventies. Directors Josh & Benny Safdie use intimate shooting techniques to make us feel like we’re along for the ride, a neon-lit shot of adrenaline to the senses that puts you right in the passenger seat for Connie’s bulldozing getaway through the streets of Queens. The only thing that saddens me about the film is that I’ll never get to experience the pure thrill of watching it again for the first time. An electrifying film that is thoroughly exciting and has your heart racing and your fists clenched from start to finish.

Zama ★★★★★

Words & Illustrations by Mark Holland

 

The opening shot of Zama, which is also the one used on the film’s poster, is one of pure noble imperialist power. It depicts protagonist Don Diego De Zama, a Corregidor in 18^th century South America, looking out to sea dressed in full bureaucratic attire, complete with three-tipped hat and powdered wig. It’s a striking image that look’s like it’s come straight from a Baroque painting. But in the two hours that follow, director Lucredia Martel does everything she can to completely shatter this image, by completely breaking down our protagonist and the representation of colonialism he embodies.

Zama, brilliantly played Daniel Giménez Cacho, is experiencing an existential crisis during a continuous run of terrible luck. A desperately lonely, sexually frustrated and pathetic man, he is trapped in a trivial military position in remote Paraguay, miles away from his family that leaves him hopelessly clinging on to any shred of dignity he’s got left. He commands zero respect from his officer peers, the women he’s trying to have it off with, or any of the indigenous people he is supposed to be ruling and has an almost slapstick ridiculousness about him that plays a fine balance between tragedy and comedy. Everyone he comes across is mocking and undermining his authority, including the environment in which he lives, showcased in a brilliant scene where a llama walks into frame whilst he’s trying to look important during a meeting.

He’s been made countless promises from his superiors that he is to be transferred to Buenos Aires, where his wife and children reside, but as the on-going, brutally unfair events that happen to him progress, it becomes clearer and clearer that this is offer is firmly not on the cards. Each time he is knocked back, he sinks to lower depths as he is gradually chipped away and begins his descent into despairing madness.

The film has the feeling of one of those dreams you might have where however hard you try and do something, you’re met with consistent failure and disappointment. The cinematography and sound design help add to this dreamlike feeling, adding several surreal elements that give it a feeling of a lucid hallucination. The haunting soundscape is oddly contrasted with a Brazilian surf rock soundtrack, which somehow seems to fit perfectly and the lush wide-open vistas of the Paraguayan landscape are beautiful but only serve to unsettle you more and conjures up images of Vietnam war films.

Watching Zama is a hypnotic experience; it really gets you into his head and traps you in his state of purgatorial anxiety and paranoia. It looks and sounds amazing and has an ethereal quality that sticks with you for days after watching it. It’s a scathing indictment of colonialism, but it’s done with a light touch in a way that’s both haunting and a pleasure to watch.

Ant-Man & The Wasp ★★★

Words & Illustrations by Mark Holland

Marvel have been on a really good run of late, the gargantuan movie studio has been releasing films thick and fast in recent years (AM&TW marks their third release in 2018) and their most recent output hasn’t just seen them garner their biggest commercial successes, but also their biggest hits with the critics as well. The original Ant-Man came out three years ago and visionary director Edgar Wright was famously fired during production, the film that was released was an incredibly middling and bang-average affair that looked more like it had been conceived in a board meeting. Since then, Marvel has been hiring more and more innovative directors and then actually allowing them to have more creative input. This has resulted in some the franchise’s best films, from Scott Derrickson’s mind-bending Doctor Strange, to Taika Waititi’s wacky space opera Thor: Ragnarok and Ryan Coogler’s afrofuturist smash-hit Black Panther.

The Big Daddy though came earlier this year, with the release of Avengers: Infinity War. This was the huge culmination of 18 films and 76 named characters that were all battling it out for a bit of screen time. It made over 2 billion dollars at the global box office and is currently the highest ever grossing superhero film and the fourth highest grossing film of all time. But aside from all this, it managed to beat the odds and astonishingly it managed to be good, and not in a good-for-a-marvel film kind of way either, but in a way that it was really, properly good. So how does the studio follow up the release of their biggest ever film? The answer it would seem is to make one of the smallest.

This isn’t a bad thing at all really and Ant-Man does benefit from the low-stakes and the more compact story lines away from the wider universe of alien raccoons and thunder gods. We begin with Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang on house arrest following the events of Civil War and there’s some sweet scenes with him trying to entertain his daughter whilst he’s stuck at home in his loft. Ant-Man’s USP is that his films are more all-out comedies and they deal with more human-sized problems on less of a grand scale. The extended scenes of Rudd improvising, usually with his mate Luiz (Michael Pena) were quite grating in the first film, but here they find a nice rhythm and they’re integrated better with the action stuff.

There’s also the addition of Evangeline Lily’s The Wasp, which marks the first time a female character has headlined a Marvel film and had their name appear in the title. This looked a bit like Marvel was making a quick grab for some diversity, to jump on the success of last year’s Wonder Woman and that they were just throwing in a female sidekick as a last minute rush to appear progressive. This isn’t the case though and The Wasp is a fully formed character who’s as interesting, funny and important to the story as her male partner.

Ant-Man and The Wasp don’t actually have any superpowers themselves but, like Iron Man or Batman, their powers come from their suits. Their insectile names tell us that they have the ability to shrink down to minuscule sizes, which can be quite limiting in terms of offering inventive action sequences. The pair also have the power to alter the size of other objects too, by zapping things and making them either really big or really small. This is the ability that has the power to inject more comedic potential and more creativity into proceedings and these are the scenes that utilise this are the most memorable. There’s a great sequence that puts these shrinking powers to use, during a car chase through the streets of San Francisco that plays out like Steve McQueen’s Bullitt by way of The Borrowers.

Ant-Man & The Wasp is perfectly fine, it uses what worked with the first one and plays to its strengths. The plot doesn’t manage to remain very coherent but it zips along just fine, clever action sequences and some enjoyable performances make it a fun and flashy, if a bit forgettable, romp.

Mission Impossible: Fallout ★★★★

Words & Illustrations by Mark Holland

1996’s Mission Impossible was never one of those films that was calling out for a multi-billion dollar franchise and 22 years ago, it would have been hard to predict that they’d still be popping out sequels in 2018. But here we are 6 movies in, the series is bigger than ever and it’s showing no signs of stopping. The key to its success has been fairly simple: Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise running about, Tom Cruise jumping off stuff and Tom Cruise hanging from big things that people don’t usually hang from.

The big objects that Tom hangs from are what sell these movies and because of this, they’re heavily publicised. They’re the focus of the trailers, the posters, they’re plastered on buses and billboards and it’s what he talks about on chat shows. In recent instalments the big set pieces have had him hanging off a plane and the Burj Khalifa, but in the case of Fallout, it’s a helicopter and a cliff-face that Tom’s using as precarious climbing frames. You’d think after being constantly bombarded with these images during the film’s promotion that they’d lose their effect on the big screen. This is absolutely not the case.

There’s a reason the Mission Impossible franchise has remained so big for so long and that’s because it’s so bloody reliable. When it comes to big stunts and impressive set pieces, it really delivers the goods and they’ve never been more stunning or more incessant than in Fallout. There’s a short segment at the start where our hero, Ethan Hunt, receives his mission statement that tells us all the general things we’re going to need to know about the plot. From thereon in it is just non-stop balls to the wall action. No sooner has he jumped out of a plane at 25,000 feet, he’s bombing it through the streets Paris on a motorbike without a helmet, then he’s free running over the rooftops of London (breaking his ankle in the process) before climbing up and subsequently piloting a helicopter whilst it’s flying in mid-air.

The action is relentless and the filmmakers are obviously very keen to show off the fact that all of the stunts are performed by Cruise himself. The guy’s an absolute nutter and any aversion you might have had towards him beforehand quickly evaporates as you can’t help but fall for his unyielding enthusiasm and his willingness to jump into all manner of dangerous stunts if he thinks the audience wants to see them. The technical brilliance of the action scenes is also amazing, if Tom is jumping out of a plane then the camera crew are jumping out first, there isn’t a green screen in sight and you can really tell, the action also manages to flow really well and this makes it all the more captivating.

Hunt is joined by his usual team of Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson et al, but this time there’s a new addition: the brilliantly named and expensively moustachioed, August Walker. Walker is played by Henry Cavill, whose recent outings as Superman have been more wooden than an oak-furnished dining room. But here he’s perfectly cast, his bulky frame is put to great use as the brutish counterpart to Hunt’s nimble and quick thinking secret agent (the pair are even contrasted in the film as the ‘hammer’ and the ‘scalpel’). An early scene cleverly tells us all we need to know about the pair’s differences through their contrasting fighting styles during a tense scrap in a nightclub bathroom.

There’s enough of a story to keep you engaged in the action and even though there aren’t too many surprises in the way of plot, it’s done in such a brilliant way that your jaw consistently remains glued to the floor. There’s also a really nice recurring theme about the moral dilemma of killing one person in order to save the lives of more, this is seen by some to be Hunt’s weakness and it’s explored in a really interesting way.

In terms of delivering the goods, Mission Impossible is that rarest of franchises that has actually managed to perfect their formula and improve with each one. The action sequences in Fallout are not only some of the best of the series, but some of the best ever put on film. It may just be Tom Cruise hanging off things that people don’t usually hang from, but nobody hangs off things better than Tom Cruise.

(TV) Better Call Saul Season 4 Episode 1: ‘Smoke’ Review ★★★★★

Words & Illustrations by Mark Holland

 

It’s a joy to see the Breaking Bad prequel back on Netflix this week and a welcome return to everyone’s favourite slippery lawyer, Jimmy McGill. The first few seasons have been a master class in slow burning storytelling and proof you could make a thoroughly engaging drama series despite knowing exactly where the characters are going to end up at the end of it. The writers on Better Call Saul have always used this to their advantage and introduced us not to Saul, the criminal lawyer we knew from Breaking Bad, but a completely different and almost unrecognisable man altogether. Watching his gradual transformation from the idealistic wannabe attorney trapped in his brother’s shadow to the crooked slime-ball we know he’s going to become is what makes the show so interesting as well as making it all the more tragic.

We’re entering the fourth season now and our protagonist is still a long way off Saul territory. We’ve seen sparks and we’ve witnessed his underlying desire to bend the rules, but for the most part the Jimmy we pick up with is still a relatively decent and honest man. The events of last season though may now mean that this finally starts to change. Where previous seasons have had the bitter rivalry between Jimmy and his brother Chuck at their core, it’s interesting to now see how the story is going to continue following Chuck’s death at the end of the last series.

His presence is still felt very strongly in ‘Smoke’ and his ghost looms ominously over Jimmy in every scene. He isn’t given a lot to say this episode as he plaintively processes his brother’s death, as well as the role that he may have played in it. Bob Odenkirk is brilliant at conveying his silent reflection, again proving there’s a lot more to him than the wisecracks and snappy one-liners. This is with the exception of one, it comes right at the very end of the episode, a fantastic razor-sharp quip directed at his brother’s ex-partner Howard that may serve as the biggest indicator yet that Jimmy is on the irreversible path towards Saul-hood.

The episode begins, as every season has, with a black and white look at post-Breaking Bad Jimmy, now managing a Cinnabun in Omaha and going under the name of Gene. These openers have always served as a cold reminder of the fate that awaits Mr McGill, a middling life on the run in the drudgery of the suburbia having to constantly look over his shoulder. This episode’s starter has our main man feeling more paranoid than ever, with the tension getting cranked up even more following a suspect encounter with a taxi driver. These short segments are powerful cues of what’s to come and contrast really well with the colourful optimism of past Jimmy in the early 00s.

Elsewhere in Albuquerque, we get to catch up with the power struggles beginning to emerge within the cartels and check in with Mike as he starts his new job as a ‘security consultant’ for Gus. It’s the cartel stuff that gives us the most interesting scenes this week though. Nacho’s bold plot to dismantle Hector as the head of the Salamanca family went as smoothly as planned, but he made the crucial mistake of underestimating Gustavo Fring. This will almost certainly serve as his downfall as we are reminded again of just how farsighted and ruthless The Chicken Man is. ‘Someone will move against the Salamancas, which brings war, which brings chaos, which brings the DEA’ is his chilling response to the demise of his greatest foe. Nacho’s fate is made all the more intriguing given his lack of appearance in Breaking Bad and given how dangerous the waters are he’s swimming in, his days are looking all the more numbered.

The writing on Better Call Saul is unparalleled; it manages to consistently offer engaging thrills whilst being patient enough to tell the story in a way that feels natural. The inclusion of recognisable characters isn’t done purely to satisfy fan service but to flesh them out and tell the back-stories we didn’t know we needed.

First Reformed ★★★★

Words & Illustrations by Mark Holland

The First Reformed of the title is the name of a church in up-state New York that had historical importance as a part of an underground railroad that protected slaves in the mid-19th century. The church is now an antique and serves more purpose as a tourist attraction with a miniscule congregation, a broken organ and a tentative pastor. The film centres on the pastor, played with despondent vigour in a career-best performance from Ethan Hawke. He is a pious and strongly disciplined man who spends his evenings isolated in his barren apartment, drinking heavily and taking down his thoughts in a gloomy journal. He is a man without hope, questioning his faith and the shaky role that religion plays in a profit-oriented society.

His scepticisms grow following a meeting with an environmental fundamentalist, this occurs early on in a brilliant scene in which the pair debate the idea of bringing a child into a world that mankind has forsaken. The meeting evokes something in the troubled reverend that rocks his core beliefs and ultimately gives him a purpose. His small church is owned by a massive religious conglomerate, which is backed by a rich millionaire whose company is one of the state’s top polluters. This deeply troubles him and he starts to become increasingly disillusioned with his church and the trivial role he plays within its organisation. Watching the internal struggle on Hawke’s face as he wrestles with these thoughts is what makes the first half of the film so engaging. The story of a lonely man becoming increasingly lost in a world he despises is a favourite of director, Paul Schrader’s and it draws obvious comparisons to his screenplay for Taxi Driver.

First Reformed is a film that asks big questions and deals with big, weighty themes which can be quite intimidating to a casual viewer. Schrader tackles the issues of religion, despair, morality, climate change and capitalism head on and does so with a hefty sense of aggression. For the most part, it doesn’t come across as too preachy and leaves most of its bigger questions unanswered but Hawke’s performance aside, the film tends to lack subtlety and goes about addressing these issues in quite a heavy-handed way. It works best when it plays out as a character study; there are several pretty out-there surreal segments that aim to achieve some sort of existential transcendence but these moments do tend to fall a bit flat.

This is especially true of the final act; the introduction of a certain device the reverend comes across towards the end tips the film into absurdity and towards a conclusion that feels contrived. Even if you’re not entirely on board with the more stylised stuff, you go along with it due to the strength of the performances and the audacity of what Schrader is aiming to achieve. First Reformed is an incredibly ambitious film, Schrader has a lot he wants to say and for the most part he achieves it, but it’s Hawke’s incredibly understated performance that holds everything together.

Hereditary ★★★★★

Words & Illustrations by Mark Holland

Of all genre pieces that struggle to also be accepted as great standalone films, its horror that seems to get the roughest deal. Years of second-rate horror flicks relying on jump scares and predictable tropes have given the genre a bad rep. They do the job and they provide knee-jerk thrills and cheap shocks but all with very little meat on the bone and the fear doesn’t tend to stick with you for long after the credits roll. So when a great horror film comes along that manages to terrify you as well as offer something more substantial, it’s really something to celebrate. The release of a number of stellar character-driven horror films like It Follows, The Witch and The Babadook in recent years have shown there’s still plenty of life in the genre. Hereditary is another great addition into the canon of great modern horror films, but I didn’t think it was possible for a film to make you feel physically sick with fear before until watching it.

Hereditary is the debut feature of Ari Aster and it extracts terror from that all familiar and time-honoured source, family. This draws notable comparisons to titans of the genre like Don’t Look Now and Rosemary’s Baby, both of which were big inspirations for Aster during the process of making it. The film is about the grief and the complicated emotions felt by one family following the death of their overbearing matriarchal grandmother, the film’s most terrifying character and she doesn’t even appear. Her looming presence is what drives the story and the theme of what she’s left behind from the grave is what gives Hereditary its ominous title.

The family’s mother, Annie, is brilliantly played by Toni Collete who gives a powerhouse performance and surely deserves an oscar nomination for her screams alone, some of the most gut-wrenchingingly horrifying screaming ever recorded. We’re unsure of the exact details of Annie’s relationship with her late mother, but a strange eulogy she gives at her funeral early on tells us it was a complex one at best. Gabriel Byrne is solid as always as the world-weary father, struggling to hold things together as his wife and children (Alex Wolff and newcomer Milly Shapiro) recess and allow their traumatic past to tear them apart. It works alone as a compelling family drama with some of the strongest scenes taking place between Annie and her son as they trade blows across the dinner table. If you were to take away the demons and ghouls, it would still hold together, given how heart breaking the events are that unfold and the believability of the performances. But Hereditary never forgets that first and foremost, it’s a horror film, with a primary purpose of scaring the pants off you and it doesn’t take long for proceedings to take a fully bonkers turn.

The film doesn’t opt for the short-burst tension & release of the jump scare, but instead manages to sustain a sickening, consistent level of torment and terror throughout. This is done through carefully placed subtle motifs that unsettle the audience from the off as well as excruciatingly long pauses and takes that have you begging for the director to cut. It’s fitting that Annie’s line of work is making meticulous miniature model doll houses and sets that fill the house as the film too is woven with cunning intricate details that cry for repeat viewings. Odd things you might glance in the background during an early scene will have big repercussions later on, that completely blindside you and serve to disturb you all the more.

Much of the tension comes from the incredible sound design, which manages to turn the scrawl of a scribbling pencil, the scuttle of an insect or the click of a tongue hitting the top of a mouth into vile cacophonous rackets that crawl straight down your spine. It’s provides the sort of fear that stays with you for days to come, it doesn’t so much get under your skin as it does rock you to your very core. Hereditary is an endurance test and watching it is one of the most distressing and uncomfortable experiences I’ve ever had in the cinema. I can’t wait to see it again.