XE_Kilroy

I love the Final Destination franchise, it's one of my favorites. Bloodlines was entertaining (only because I love the franchise) but I didn't think it was anywhere near as good as the originals which were actually epic.

I think fans just love the franhise so much they're grateful to have another installment, even if it wasn't as good, and just want to beat its drum regardless, giving it high ratings and rave reviews. But from an unbiased pov I felt it was mediocre.

This film has very high accolades as a horror movie. Perhaps even touted as one of if not the best. I was very letdown. It wasn't awful. It's a good movie for the most part, good directing, great acting, etc. It's a good movie per se. But as a horror film it is mediocre. People will say, horror is subjective and it's unfair to say a movie is therefore bad becaise it didn't scare you.

But allow me to elaborate and delve into the issue...

The entire horror movie genre is a dead sea really.

There are so many movie genres where there is a grand scope for them to explore, to grab you. Going in blind, they can be entertaining, thrilling, action packed, a mystery, a period drama, a high art experience, plot twists, have a message or hold up a mirror, etc.

There's far more scope for them to be many different things and classified as good or bad movies, beyond subjectivity.

But promoted horror and comedy films have only one objective and only one viewer expectation -- they're there to either scare you or make you laugh -- and if they fail to, then they are objectively bad. It's more clear cut.

Comedies are batting at a far far higher average than horror movies. Much easier to make people laugh, sure. But the entire horror genre truly needs a Renaissance, a re-imagining. All they can set out to do nowadays is to cheaply "jump scare" you with sounds or images. Something in the background suddenly visible, or music building as a person slowly walks to open a door or remove a blanket, or a sudden loud sound, etc. But there's nothing intrinsically scary/horrifying about the scenes or the movies.

Firstly, horror movies are unrealistic....there are monsters, disfigured faces, grandmas crawling around on ceilings, peoples limbs and heads contorting in unrealistic ways, etc. All I see is how they were made, the masks, make-up, costumes, pullies, fake blood, lookalike dummies, etc. All I think about are the hunorous outtakes between the actors on set. I might marvel at their techniques, but there's seldom if anything I've ever been scared by compared to the millions of comedy movies I've genuinely laughed along with; crying laughter even.

Secondly, what is more frightening are thrillers or "normal" movies where there are unnerving or creepy real-world scenes in them. Example, the film "Zodiac" where on a cold, rainy night a journalist delving too deep finds himself in the home of a possible serial killer (where the actor actually looks like a killer). A tense scene where he's invited down into the dark, creepy basement to check out movie posters...and he's powerless to say no, to resist being lured into the spider's web. Eventually, he's so visibly mortified he runs back up and out of the house while the suspected killer ever so slightly smirks. You can put yourself in their shoes, you can envision finding yourself in a similar situation in your life. All these kinds of unnerving scenes in more "usual" movies are more frightening than horror movie scenes.

Despite the non-realism of surrealist movies (like David Lynch), they too can be far more frightening than actual horror movies.

The only horror film scene I can think of that may reach that mark is from "Texas Chainsaw Massacre"....the barn scene when they encounter the first brutal death and the killer hits the screen. Alfred Hitchcock also had some fine horror moments in his filmography. "Rosemary's Baby", yep.

With all that said, "Hereditary" started off strong as a psychological thriller, the tensions between family members as the drama between them unfolded. But as the story devolved into a stock horror film, with stock horror tropes, it lost everything. In the end, it's not a great or one of the best ever horror films...because the actual horror half of the film is lame, and the first half of the film is actually a paychological thriller. It's the first half which has any unnerving moments (eg, the classroom scene with the clicking noise). I'm just reiterating that horror (nowadays) just doesn't work, or work anymore.

I have my own ideas for making a horror movie. Not saying they'd be great. It's hard to truly horrify. But it's definitely THE genre in film that needs a rebirth, re-invention, Renaissance. I mean actual horror not unnerving or creepy scenes that other genres do a much better job of anyway.

Whilst there are many sub-genres of horror, they have different agendas. Zombie movies and the like, the gore category, the objective is to gross you out rather than scare as such. About the only sub-genre that has some success is the paranormal, like "Poltergeist", "The Blair Witch Project", "Communion", etc. And they resonate more when one has had similar childhood experiences. But I still can't classify them as straight-up horror movies. They may fall under as a sub-genre, but they could also be a sub-genre of other genres...thriller, drama, mystery, etc.

It's very hard to name many straight-up horror movies that are actually scary compared to the millions of comedy movies that are actually funny.

Came into this film with it being hyped up for me. It's essentially a psychological thriller with a slight mix of horror, action, and the supernatural.

The 20 minute long intro is a huge downer especially in hindsight when its context is connected at the end. Zero pay off. The overall run time is also far too long as the story needlessly draws out the main character's journey/arc. There were moments or scenes where the acting was good but far too many where the acting was downright awful, stood out as bad acting that it took you out of the story; like you were on set instead and wanting to yell "Cut! Cut! Let's do that again"...and again.

The story is kind of interesting while still a mystery, tho not unique or creatively different either. It does take you for a little ride, but it's only a little ride. Once it tries to resolve the mystery or starts to connect up, it becomes farcically bad. Not a film I'd have highly recommended to anyone after seeing it. Nothing stood out. I wasn't bored, but it did come off at times silly, at times lame, at times cringe, at times dull. It just didn't convince me to give-in to it, to take it genuinely.

The core problem is that the plot is disjointed and contradictory. It never knows what it wants to be Or, it's trying to be all kinds of things that only don't connect in the end. The story also tries to fit itself in with teen horror tropes, with religious/social commentary, with action and mystery, with plot twists, supernatural undertones, surrealism, Matrix and Inception-like themes, etc, all in the singular journey/arc of the main character. This only creates many logical holes and loose ends if it's goal was to take itself seriously for the viewer to genuinely chew on. A treatment like this would've worked better as a black parody of movie tropes/genres instead.

The lasting impression is a film that just doesn't coordinate with itself -- nonsensical, arbitrary, meandering aimlessly for two-plus hours only to attempt to resolve itself (shallowly at that) like it could've kept going for another two hours aimlessly meandering if a producer didn't step in and halt production.