Next up, a film which features two particularly great actors: Toni Collette and Gabriel Byrne. This is something of a surprise and makes me think about horror films and their actors. Obviously they’re mostly Keith David and Mia Goth (and before you ask, I’ve checked they’re not actually in the same horror film together), but they are also largely not very famous (or possibly even good). I feel like this may take some further investigating at the end of this exercise, but for now let me just reiterate my shock at finding a horror film with two ‘big name’ actors in it.

I’m talking about Hereditary (2018), a film from A24 (who also produced Everything Everywhere All at Once, Lady Bird and, a film from earlier this week, X). It’s all about a family after the loss of the grandmother.

It’s heartening to see so many strange, new faces here today. I know my mom would be very touched, and probably a little suspicious.

For the second day running, this film is actually alright. I shouldn’t be so surprised by that, but I am. It’s a pleasant surprise.

What are the best bits (intentionally-vague slight-spoilers)? It’s definitely a horror/mystery/thriller because you spent most of the film wondering who’s doing what to who; it’s a bit like a whodunnit of horror. There’s arguably a bit of a Fight Club vibe to it, which can’t be bad. Unexpected stuff is always happening, but not in a contrived misdirectional or ‘twist’ way, which is refreshing. The acting’s pretty good. Some of the imagery at the very end is pretty unsettling. It’s not complete nonsense.

What are the worst bits? Whilst the ending brings a bit more sense to the general ‘goings on’, it does take a somewhat broad-brush approach to explaining what has occurred; not quite in the realms of ‘it was all a dream’ but a weirdly ‘simple’ explanation to a lot of unexpected events. The teenage son played by Alex Wolff, who in reality couldn’t have been older than 21 when the movie was film, looks old enough to be MY dad… possibly not, but he’s not a convincing teenager. The creepy daughter is not given the character development or exploration that may have been useful. It also feels a bit long, but only a bit.

Worth seeing? Yeah, why not? It’s got Toni Collette in it, and she gets to do ALL the acting in this role. It’s a single-film attempt at completing acting. Also, as I say, there’re some good scenes reminiscient (but not derivative) of films like The Exorcist.