MICKEY 17 : Tuesday 11th March 2025.

I saw the M Rated 'MICKEY 17' earlier this week and this Sci-Fi black comedy film is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Bong Joon-ho, whose prior feature film credits take in his debut with 'Barking Dogs Never Bite' in 2000 and then the likes of 'The Host' in 2006, 'Mother' in 2009, 'Snowpiercer' in 2013 his English language debut, 'Okja' in 2017 and the critically lauded and multi-award winning 'Parasite' in  2019. This film is based on the 2022 novel 'Mickey7' by Edward Ashton, and saw its World Premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival in mid-February, before being theatrically released in South Korea on 28th February and later Stateside and here in Australia last week. It has garnered generally favourable critical reviews, and has so far grossed US$59M from a production budget of US$118M. 

It is 2054, and Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) and his best friend Timo (Steven Yeun) are financially well and truly broke after a failed business venture that saw them borrowing money to open up a chain of macaron stores. Unable to repay a murderous loan shark, the pair decide to flee Earth by signing up as crew for a spaceship that leaves our little blue planet to colonise the planet Niflheim, a journey that will take them four-and-a half years. Timo signs up as a shuttle pilot and Mickey as the spaceship's only 'Expendable'. Using Earth-banned technology to clone Mickey and restore his memories, Mickey is treated as disposable, given lethal assignments that mere mortals would never dare contemplate, and then reprinted after death - time after time after time. 

During the voyage, a romance develops between Mickey and security agent Nasha (Naomi Ackie). Some four years pass and the spaceship eventually arrives at snow bound and wintery Niflheim. Using Mickeys 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 the spaceship's scientists finally develop a vaccine against Niflheim's air borne pathogens. Mickey 17, the seventeenth version of Mickey, is given the task of capturing one of the planets giant woodlice-like alien creatures (termed 'creepers') for scientific analysis. In doing so, he falls into a deep fissure in the ice, beyond the reach of Timo, who leaves and reports Mickey 17's death. However, the creepers arrive en masse and collectively push Mickey 17 out of the fissure, for him to return almost unscathed to the spaceship.

Mickey 17 returns to the spaceship, cleans himself up and flops on to his bed only to be greeted by the very recently printed Mickey 18 (Robert Pattinson), who is much more confident and aggressive. As the expedition's leader, twice failed politician Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo), has vowed to kill any 'Multiples' (simultaneously living clones), Mickey 18 tries to kill Mickey 17, who resists and is then interrupted by Timo. Mickey 18 then tries to kill Timo, but is interrupted and leaves with Nasha, who believes she is leaving with Mickey 17. Mickey 17 in the meantime is brought to dinner with Marshall, his wife Ylfa (Toni Colette), and security guard Kai Katz (Anamaria Vartolomei). Mickey 17 suffers severe pain after being served experimental meat and being treated with experimental painkillers. Kai intervenes to stop Marshall from putting a bullet in his head. Kai later woos Mickey 17, who flees.

Nasha learns of the Mickeys and accepts them both. When Mickey 17 tells Mickey 18 what happened over dinner with the Marshall's, an enraged Mickey 18 decides to kill Marshall at a public ceremony commemorating a huge chunk of Niflheim rock. Chaos ensues when two baby creepers emerge from the rock that had just moments before been lasered in half. Mickey 17 arrives and captures creeper Zoco, but creeper Luko jumps onto Marshall and is shot to pieces by Kai and other security agents. Nasha stops Mickey 18 from killing Marshall, who discovers the Multiples. Mickey 17, Mickey 18 and Nasha are arrested, and locked up. Thousands of creepers arrive outside the ship, calling out to Zoco.

Locked up in their respective cells Mickey 17's description of the creepers helping him escape from the fissure makes Nasha realise they are not hostile. Timo tries to kill Mickey 17 to satisfy the loan shark who has seemingly caught up with him even on Niflheim, but Nasha and Mickey 18 overpower him. The Mickeys and Nasha are brought to Marshall, who wants to exterminate all the creepers. Marshall destroys Mickey's stored memories, while Nasha saves Zoco from being executed by Ylfa. Marshall's assistant Preston (Daniel Henshall) persuades Marshall to task the Mickeys to compete in collecting creeper tails, which Ylfa wants one hundred of for making edible sauce, with the winner being allowed to live. The Mickeys are forced to wear remote-detonated bomb vests to ensure they comply with the instructions.

When the Mickeys are sent out into the frozen snow-bound wasteland surrounding the ship, they peacefully seek out the creepers' leader, which prompts Marshall to go outside himself with a security team and Preston ready to film the unfolding events for a live broadcast, and with the intention of personally killing all the creepers. Using a translation device manufactured by sympathetic scientist Dorothy (Patsy Ferran), Mickey 17 communicates with the creepers' leader, informing on Marshall's plan. The creepers' leader threatens to kill all humans, unless Zoco is returned alive and one human is killed to compensate for Luko's death.

Mickey 17 tells Nasha via camera to free Zoco. Nasha takes Ylfa hostage to ensure Zoco's release. Nasha releases Ylfa, who tries to kill Zoco, but Nasha again saves him. The security agents arrest Ylfa. Nasha returns Zoco to the creepers' leader, while Mickey 18 fights Marshall and detonates the bomb planted on his vest, killing himself and Marshall to fulfil the demand by the creepers' leader. Afterwards Ylfa commits suicide in a psychiatric ward, while Preston and other Marshall collaborators are imprisoned. An associate of the loan shark tries to kill Timo, but Timo manages to kill him. Nasha is later elected as a colony political leader. She presides over a groundbreaking ceremony on Niflheim where it is now spring time, where Mickey 17 (now to be known as 'Mickey Barnes') detonates the cloning device to symbolically end the Expendable programme, but not before he had a vision of a reprinted Ylfa and Marshall.

Director, Producer and Writer Bong Joon-ho has here delivered us a darkly comedic Sci-Fi satire set in the near future on some distant planet far far away that is a times absurdist, thought provoking, a social commentary, and an environmental essay while exploring the class divide and providing us with a bit of a creature feature too along the way. Robert Pattinson gives possibly a career best performance as the various Mickey's, ably supported by a scene chewing Mark Ruffalo channeling a certain POTUS and an equally on point Toni Collette serving up his unhinged yet domineering sauce loving wife. Visually the film looks the part too, but the plot meanders along and it overstays its welcome just a tad at a 137 minute run time, and I came out of the movie theatre feeling a little 'meh'!

'Mickey 17' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

NIGHTMARE ALLEY : Tuesday 25th January 2022.

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'NIGHTMARE ALLEY' this week, which is an American neo-noir psychological thriller film Directed, Co-Written for the screen and Co-Produced by Guillermo del Toro whose previous film making credits take in 'Hell Boy', 'Pacific Rim', 'Crimson Peak' and the Academy Award winning 'Pan's Labyrinth' and 'The Shape of Water'. This film is based on the 1946 novel of the same name by William Lindsay Gresham, and is the second feature film adaptation following the 1947 film starring Tyrone Power. The film has garnered generally positive Reviews and has recovered US$15M in Box Office receipts from its US$60M production budget so far, having been released Stateside in mid-December last year. It has also so far won fourteen awards and been nominated a further seventy-seven times (of which some of those nominations are still awaiting an outcome) from around the awards circuit. 

The film opens up in 1939, and we see Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper, who also Co-Produces here) dragging a bundled up body across the floor of a ramshackle dwelling and dumping that body under the floorboards. He then douses the body and the surrounding room with petrol, strikes a match, and walks out of the rural house perched on a hill as it becomes engulfed in flames. He gets on bus, and sleeps. When he wakes its nighttime and the bus has reached the end of the line. He gets out and walks toward a travelling carnival, ultimately securing a job as an employee (a carny) on that travelling carnival. When the carnivals resident 'geek' becomes ill, the owner Clem Hoately (Willem Dafoe) has Carlisle help him drop off the body at a nearby inner-city Church, on the promise of a steak and eggs dinner. Over dinner, Clem explains that he finds alcoholics or drug addicts, who are often men with a troublesome history, and coaxes them in with promises of a temporary job, somewhere to sleep and regular meals, but gives them alcohol that contains a few drops of opium tincture. He uses their gradual dependence to physically and mentally abuse them until they sink into madness and depravity, thus creating a geek for his carnival. Later that night Clem shows Carlisle where he stores the moonshine he brews to control the other carnies, warning him not to mistake it for the wood alcohol for pickling medical specimens he stores in jars nearby, for that stuff will easily kill a man.

After a lot of fetching and carrying, erecting and dismantling the big carnival tents and sideshows, often in the pouring rain, Carlisle lands a job with clairvoyant act Madame Zeena (Toni Collette) and her alcoholic husband Pete (David Strathairn). Zeena and Pete use an ingenious coded language system, devised by Pete, to make it seem that she has extraordinary mental powers, which Pete begins teaching to Carlisle. Pete and Zeena warn him not to use these skills to continue leading patrons on when it comes to the dead, which they refer to as a 'spook show'. They always tell their customers after the show that it is a deception for fear of people getting hurt. Meanwhile, as Carlisle becomes more and more familiar with their act, and he grows in confidence, he is attracted to fellow performer Molly (Rooney Mara) and approaches her with an idea for a two-person act away from the carnival, using his new found mentalist abilities. 

One night, after Pete asks Carlisle to secure him a bottle of Clem's moonshine, he gives Pete the wrong bottle (possible accidentally) and the old man dies the next morning in Zeena's arms from consuming wood alcohol. In the aftermath, Carlisle swears his love to Molly and reiterates his plan. She accepts, and they leave the carnival behind. Two years later, Carlisle has successfully reinvented himself as 'The Great Stanton', a mentalist act for New York's wealthy ruling class, together with Molly as his assistant, using Zeena and Pete's tried and tested techniques. During a performance, their act is interrupted by psychologist Dr. Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett), who attempts to expose their system of code. Stan's line of questioning allows him to gain the upper hand over Ritter, keeping their act safe while publicly humiliating her. He is later approached by the wealthy Judge Kimball (Peter MacNeill), who engaged Ritter to test Carlisle. He is now convinced of Carlisle's abilities and offers to pay him handsomely to allow him and his wife Felicia (Mary Steenburgen) to communicate with their dead son who died in Nomansland during WWII at the age of 23. Despite Molly's objections to the unwritten 'spook show' ruling, Carlisle agrees.

Ritter invites Carlisle to her office. She knows full well that he is a con man, but is nevertheless intrigued by his skills of mental manipulation. Through her recorded sessions with her clients, she has accumulated a wealth of potentially sensitive information about various members of New York's movers and shakers and the rich and famous. Sharing a connection, she and Carlisle begin an affair, and they conspire together to manipulate Kimball, with Ritter secretly providing private and sensitive information to fuel his pretence. She does this on the condition that she can start therapy sessions with Carlisle, based on complete honesty, who reveals his guilt over Pete's death, and his hatred of his alcoholic father, who he killed in their home before joining the carnival. 

Kimball introduces Carlisle to the powerful and very private Ezra Grindle (Richard Jenkins), whose lover, Dory, died of a forced abortion. Despite warnings from Ritter that Grindle is dangerous, Carlisle begins to scam Grindle and starts to drink, having told her previously that he 'never' touches the stuff!. Ritter feeds information to Carlisle, which he supplements by doing his own clandestine investigations, to use against Grindle as revenge for him previously attacking her. She shows Carlisle a scar down her chest and abdomen she received from Grindle. Molly becomes increasingly uncomfortable, and upon learning of the affair with Ritter, leaves Carlisle. He begs her to stay, but she refuses, only agreeing to help him one last time. 

She poses as Dory for Carlisle's ultimate act: manifesting herself as Dory from the other side for Grindle so that he can ask for her forgiveness. However, he loses control of Grindle, who reveals himself to be a violent abuser of many women due to his guilt for Dory. He then clutches hold of Molly wrist before she can exit the escalating out of control scene and realises that his vision of Dory is a fake. Unknown to Carlisle, Grindle's head of personal security, Anderson (Holt McCallany), hears a radio broadcast announcing that Judge Kimball and his wife have been found dead in an apparent murder-suicide, because of Carlisle's promises to Felicia that they would be reunited with their dead son after their own deaths. She had shot dead her husband and then turned the gun on herself. Knowing that Carlisle was recommended to Grindle by the Judge, he goes to check on what was going down between the two.

Upon coming to the realisation that 'Dory' is fake, Grindle becomes enraged and promises to ruin Carlisle. A tussle breaks out between the two men and Carlisle beats him to death with repeated blows to the face, then kills Anderson during their escape by running over him, twice, in their car. As he begins to smash up their car to create the impression that it was stolen, Molly leaves Carlisle for good. Carlisle goes to Ritter for help but discovers she has been scamming him all along, revealing that she wanted revenge for what happened during their initial meeting. She speaks of her disappointment in realising that he was nothing more than a base money-driven petty criminal. She calls the Police and threatens to use her recordings of their sessions as evidence that he is mentally disturbed should he try to implicate her. Ritter shoots Carlisle in the ear, and he tries to strangle Ritter using the telephone cable with the line to the Police still open but as the Police arrive, he flees.

Wanted, injured, with no money, nowhere to go and only the clothes on his back, Carlisle jumps a train and hides behind a wall of chicken coups, as the Police search the carriages but find no evidence of him. He wanders around for years as an aimless alcoholic tramp. At his limit, he tries to get a job as a mentalist at another carnival. The owner (Tim Blake Nelson) turns him away but offers him a drink and a 'temporary' job as the new geek at the last minute, using the same patter that Clem recounted to him all those years previously. Carlisle accepts, laughing out, 'I was born for it'. Seemingly aware of his fate, his laughs turn to tears.

In 'Nightmare Alley' Director Guillermo del Toro has here hung up his all too familiar horror fantasy tropes and traded these in for a psychological melodramatic offering that is bathed beautifully in the colours and images of the era in which the film is set with the emphasis on meticulous detail, whilst still retaining the filmmaking DNA that del Toro is so renowned for. Cooper here shines in his role as the fractured tormented soul with regrets about his past 'indiscretions' but willing to brush these under the carpet for his share of the limelight and all the trappings of his success only for it to all come crumbling down around him that ultimately brings him full circle. And the other A-listers in supporting roles including Blanchett's femme fatale, Collette, Dafoe, Mara, Strathairn and Jenkins all give top notch performances that lend an authenticity to the early 1940's setting, some more menacingly than others. This is a film of life on the road as a travelling carny, of dark and stormy nights, of misdirection and deception, of regret and redemption and of murder most foul all wrapped up in a morality tale that transcends the ages. My only gripe is that of the 150 minute running time, del Toro could easily have shaved twenty-minutes off without sacrificing the story or his undeniable artistic integrity. 

'Nightmare Alley' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

KNIVES OUT : Monday 2nd December 2019

Here with a change of pace and genre compared to his last mega budget space opera epic that was 2017's 'Star Wars : The Last Jedi', Rian Johnson here writes, Directs and Co-Produces this M Rated throw back to the murder mystery whodunit's of yesteryear with 'KNIVES OUT', which I saw at my local multiplex earlier this week. Aside from the aforementioned 'Star Wars' instalment, Johnson has also Directed and Written 'Brick' (his big screen debut in 2005), then 'The Brothers Bloom', 'Looper' and helmed several episodes of 'Breaking Bad' in between. In wanting to craft an Agatha Christie inspired type film, Johnson sought the influences from such classic comedic murder mystery crime stories as 'Murder on the Orient Express', 'Murder by Death', 'Death on the Nile', 'The Mirror Crack'd', 'Evil Under the Sun', 'Deathtrap' and 'Clue'. With a budget of US$40M, the film saw its World Premier at TIFF in early September, went on general release last week, has so far grossed US$76M and has generated widespread Critical acclaim.

And so, here we have renowned and wealthy crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) who invites his extended dysfunctional family to his remote mansion on his 85th birthday in hopes of reuniting them all. However, the morning after the birthday party, Harlan is found dead by Harlan's housekeeper - the loyal Fran (Edie Patterson), with his throat slit, and the knife still in his hand - allegedly suicide.

A few days later, following the funeral, an anonymous figure has hired a successful and well regarded private detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) to support the local Police Dept. consisting of Detective Lieutenant Elliot (Lakeith Stanfield) and Trooper Wagner (Noah Segan) in their investigations. Elliot and Wagner begin questioning the individual members of the family unit who were all present in the house the night before for the birthday celebrations, with Blanc looking on, observing and taking mental notes.

They start with Linda Drysdale (Jamie Lee Curtis) Harlan's eldest daughter and a real estate guru who runs her own company, and according to her a self made woman, even though she started with a $1M loan from her father. They then move to Richard Drysdale (Don Johnson) Harlan's son-in-law and Linda's husband, who helps run his wife's company. We learn early on that Harlan had photographic evidence of Richard in a compromising position with another woman, and how Harlan had intended to expose his infidelity to Linda the next day. In discussion with the Detectives Richard puts another spin on this tale entirely.

We then move to Walt Thrombey (Michael Shannon), Harlan's youngest son, and the acting CEO of his Dad's publishing company. Walt had always wanted to sell the film and television rights to Harlan's extensive back catalogue of publications, but Harlan had always intervened and strictly forbidden it. At the party, Harlan effectively fires Walt from his position at the publishing company, saying that it is time for him to go his own way in life and find the niche with which to make his own fortune - much to Walt's chagrin.

Then there is Joni Thrombey (Toni Collette), Harlans daughter-in-law and the wife of Harlan's deceased son Neil (who died fifteen years previously). She is a lifestyle guru and influencer and mother to Meg (Katherine Langford) who studies at a liberal arts college funded by Harlan to the tune of $100K a year. Harlan has discovered that Joni was double dipping the money meant for his granddaughter's tuition over the last four years, amounting to $400K, and as such cuts off her allowance. Needless to see when questioned, Joni also puts a different spin on this conversation.

And then there is Hugh Ransom Drysdale (Chris Evans) - the adult son of Linda and Richard, who is a rebellious spoiled and lazy playboy - although Harlan has a soft spot for Ransom, and sees himself in the young man. Ransom is the only member of the family who did not attend the funeral, but was overheard arguing with Harlan the night of his birthday party by Jacob Thrombey (Jaeden Martell) Harlan's teenage grandson, Walt and Donna's son, who holds alternative rightwing opinions and is constantly on the Internet on his phone.

On the periphery sits Wanetta 'Great Nana' Thrombey (K. Callan), Harlan's 100+year old mother who sits silently observing, taking it all in, and Donna Thrombey (Riki Lindhome) - Harlan's daughter-in-law and Walt's wife.

Finally, there is Marta Cabrera (Ana de Armas) - Harlan's private nurse and caretaker who was the closest to him, more so than any other member of his family. She is living with her mother and are migrants from a South American country. Marta is very well regarded by the other family members who all see her as part of the Thrombey family for her deep heartfelt care and compassion shown everyday day towards Harlan. Blanc has come to learn that Marta's good conscience means she cannot lie without vomiting, and so trusting that she will tell the truth, Blanc asks her to accompany him in his investigations. They search the property and its grounds for clues.

Over the next couple of days, the whole family gathers for the reading of the Will. They are all expecting to become rich beneficiaries of Harlan's estate which consisted of the grand house they are all presently sat in, a holiday home, and $60M in cash. When Alan Stevens (Frank Oz), Harlan's lawyer arrives to read the Will, the family are shocked to hear that he left everything to Marta. The whole family almost in unison turn on her immediately, all expect for Ransom, who make his exit laughing. The other Thrombeys realise that, under the slayer rule (preventing a person inheriting property from a person he or she murders) they will regain their inheritance if they can prove Marta killed Harlan, and insist Blanc continue the investigation, suspecting that she had ulterior motives.

And so Blanc does continue with his investigation, piecing together the puzzle that leads him down the path of toxicology reports, another attempted murder, a torched medical examiners office, a car chase, and foul play where everyone is a suspect. But Blancs investigative work is closing in on the prime suspect who is suspected of being Marta right up until just before the end, but the toxicology report proves otherwise, revealing another suspect amongst the family ranks who had the motive and the opportunity. To reveal anymore would be giving the game away. Needless to say, in the final analysis, the money grabbing Thrombey clan all get their comeuppance and vacate their former family home having inherited less than a brass razoo, whilst seeing one of their own carted off for murder and attempted murder.

'Knives Out' is an honest to goodness throwback to those cliched whodunit films of yesteryear but dusted off, shaped up, polished and brought beautifully up to date with a fine cast, a cracking storyline, top notch production values, social and cultural commentary, and enough malice, twists and turns to satisfy the appetite of any die hard genre fan. Daniel Craig shines with his deep southern drawl and his old school methods of deduction, Ana de Armas is compelling as the kind hearted good natured caring nurse thrust into the limelight for all the wrong reasons, Chris Evans fresh from his turn as Captain America hams it up as the devilish young buck and looks to be having a blast, and Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette, Don Johnson and Michael Shannon all add depth in their roles for the limited screen time they enjoy. This modern murder mystery tinged with black humour is smart, stylish, witty, very entertaining and very well made and I think you'll be hard pressed to not enjoy this cinematic treat. Let's hope this isn't the last we've seen of Benoit Blanc, and Rian Johnson's love letter to the whodunit genre.

'Knives Out' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, from a potential five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

HEREDITARY : Monday 11th June 2018.

'HEREDITARY' which I saw this week is a much publicised American supernatural horror film Written and Directed by first timer Ari Aster and it has been touted as the most scary film of 2018, and for some time before that too. The film Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival back in January and went on release in Australia and the US just last week, and the UK this week. The film has garnered generally widespread acclaim by the Critics of this world, but less favourably so by audiences. The film cost just US$10M to make, and in its opening weekend took close to US$14M, and has so far racked up US$22M. The film is Produced and distributed by A24 - the crew behind such notable horrors at 'The Witch', 'Green Room' and 'It Comes At Night'.

The story unwinds in a slow burn terrifying emotional rollercoaster of a ride when Ellen, the matriarch of the Graham family passes away. We are first introduced to the Graham family in a very cleverly realised opening tracking shot of an elaborate miniature house under 'construction' inside a home studio. As the camera pans in on a bedroom inside the small yet very lifelike house and gets closer, we see a figure curled up inside a bed, asleep. Into the room walks Steve Graham (Gabriel Byrne) to wake up his son Peter (Alex Wolff), carrying a newly pressed suit that he is to wear today to the funeral, of his grandmother Ellen.

At the funeral, as Steve, Peter and younger sister Charlie (Milly Shapiro) sit in the pews, mother Annie (Toni Collette) delivers the eulogy. Annie has little good to say about her recently deceased mother, explaining that the pair had a fraught and at times tense relationship over the years that ebbed and flowed, that she was also a very secretive person with only a very close circle of friends, and had her own private rituals. After the service, the family of four return home - a large older style house that stands alone in its own grounds.

Annie is a miniature artist who builds tiny houses, buildings and furnishes them with ornate and intricately detailed items of everyday furniture and appliances and of course, custom made people. She is currently working on a special project for an exhibition, on which the deadline is approaching. A few days have passed and Steve receives a phone call from the funeral home saying that Ellen's grave has been desecrated. He chooses not to report this news to Annie, for fear that this will upset her further.

During that first week, Annie tells Steve that she is going out to catch a movie. Instead she rocks up to a support group for those that have suffered a recent heartbreaking death in the family or of someone close. She sits reluctantly largely unwilling to take part, but when asked, as a newcomer to the group, to share her experience, Annie opens up. Now that she's been invited to speak to the assembled group of about a dozen others she speaks of the history of mental illness on her side of the family, how her depressive father starved himself to death, how her schizophrenic brother accused her mother of trying to put people inside his body and eventually committed suicide, and how Ellen herself suffered from multiple personality disorder.

Later, Peter announces that he is going to a friends party and asks to use his Mum's car. On the condition that he doesn't drink, she agrees, asking at the same time if he intends taking his sister along too. He agrees, although is none too pleased at the prospect of dragging his little sister along, but does so. At the party, Peter disappears to partake in a bong with his friends, leaving Charlie to fend for herself in a room full of complete strangers. She eats a slice of chocolate birthday cake cut with a knife that had beforehand been used to chop up nuts.

Within minutes Charlie begins the early onset of anaphylactic shock which steadily worsens. Peter lifts Charlie into the back of the car and races off to the hospital. Gasping for air, Charlie opens the window and leans her head out, just as Peter swerves abruptly to avoid the carcass of a dead animal lying in the road directly in front of him. Peter loses control of the car momentarily and veers close to a telephone pole, on the side that Charlie is hanging out of. She is decapitated. Peter is stunned and sits motionless in the car after bringing it to halt. He knows exactly what has happened but daren't turn around to see.

He comes to his senses and drives home, enters the house quietly and goes to bed without telling his parents, who discover Charlie's body and severed head by the road side the next morning. Annie breaks down uncontrollably over Charlie's death, wailing in her mourning from which not even Steve can console her, and now having to attend the second family funerals within days of each other.

Peter begins seeing visions of Charlie around the house - real or imagined we don't know, but to him they are very real, and very creepy. Annie returns to the support group, but this time does not enter electing to sit outside in her car pondering. As she exits the car park she is waved down by Joan (Ann Dowd) another member of the support group who lost her son and her grandson in a drowning accident six months earlier. Annie is invited to connect with Joan whenever she feels it necessary to aid her recovery. This she does and visits Joan at her apartment where she reveals that she used to sleepwalk, and on one such occasion with almost dire consequences for herself and Peter. Joan confides that she has learned to communicate with her deceased eight year old grandson by means of a seance. After convincing a very sceptical Annie to participate, Joan demonstrates how the connection is real. Having been totally creeped out by her seance experience, Annie exits stage left rather sharply.

However, a day or so later, Annie wakes Steve and Peter and orders them both downstairs, and to ask no questions but to trust her. She convinces them both to conduct their own seance and to connect with Charlie although both her husband and her son are extremely reluctant. Annie lights a candle, and asks them to join hands. Peter especially is freaked out by the request. Annie places an upturned glass on the table which after a connection is established moves itself across the table. The candle then erupts like a Bunsen burner turned up to full, and a glass cabinet is smashed. Annie goes into a trance like state seemingly possessed by the spirit of Charlie, until Steve wakes her by throwing a glass of water over her.

After this episode Annie believes that Charlie's spirit has become malevolent. She throws Charlie's sketchbook into the open fire, only for the flame to jump across to Annie's sleeve and take hold, until she retrieves the smoking book from the fire and stamps out the flames so extinguishing the fire on her arm at the same time. Annie later rifles through her mother’s keepsakes and comes across a photo album that linked Joan to Ellen, and a book in which her mother had highlighted a section referencing the demon Paimon, a 'King of Hell' whose preference is to inhabit the bodies of vulnerable males. It transpires that Ellen and Joan's mother were members of a coven that worshipped Paimon, of which Joan is now a member.

Following this realisation, Annie ventures up into the attic and pulling down the step ladder is confronted with a swarm of flies and a godawful stench. Searching around in the dimly lit attic space with pesky flies all around her, she comes across a blackened headless corpse lying in a corner, that she suspects to be that of her mother Ellen, but can't be sure. Simultaneously, at school Peter is taking part in an English lesson and with his mind elsewhere he is hallucinating. His arm shoots up in the air involuntarily, his eyes bloodshot and his face contorts. Then he slams his face down so hard on his desk, and repeats sending him back reeling with his nose badly broken and blood pouring. He has no idea what just happened, except that he had no control. He screams out in panic.

Steve collects the unconscious Peter from school and drives him home and puts him to bed to rest and recover from his unexplained but deeply distressing ordeal. Annie ushers Steve to the attic to view the corpse and for him to burn Charlie's sketchbook stating that it is the only way to rid them of their daughters spirit. She insists that he burn it, knowing that she cannot from her previous attempt. Steve initially refuses, believing that his wife has lost her mind and further that it was she who desecrated the grave and moved Ellen’s corpse herself. Annie, out of frustration with her husband, throws the sketchbook into the fire herself, only for the flames to jump to Steve instantly engulfing him in fire.

Peter wakes up sensing that something is not quite right. The house is dark and quiet. He gingerly creeps downstairs closing doors as he goes. He finds his father's charred lifeless body, and is then chased by a now-possessed Annie into the attic where he bolts the door closed behind him. Annie clinging upside down on the ceiling frantically and repeatedly bangs her head against the attic door. Inside the attic, Peter is confronted by followers of Ellen all looking on silently with their aged, naked ashen bodies. Behind him Annie appears, levitated up near the ceiling rafters, cutting off her own head with a wire saw. Peter, horrified by the scene before him jumps out the window to escape and is knocked unconscious upon landing in the garden shrubbery below. 

A light pulsates and descends towards Peter's unconscious body. He comes around and spies his mothers levitating headless body as it moves towards and up in to the family treehouse. There he finds Charlie's head sitting on top of a makeshift statue of the demon god Paimon. Joan, the figures seen in the attic, and the headless corpses of Annie and Ellen now all bow down in front of Peter, as he is announced as Paimon. 

I would have to say, that for me, 'Hereditary' was not nearly the scarefest I was given to believe having read other Reviews. However, don't let that detract from the storyline, or the look and feel of this ultimately macabre modern day emotional rollercoaster horror offering. The five principle cast members are all terrific - Milly Shapiro (in her feature film debut) as the clucking disturbed dead panned thirteen year old daughter, Alex Wolff as the pot smoking sad eyed simply existing older teenage son, Gabriel Byrne as the stoic just wants a simple happy life husband, Ann Dowd as the do gooder hiding a malevolent secret and then there's Toni Collette who as the wife and centrepiece gives the performance of her career as the mother battling grief on two substantive levels while trying to keep things together under the influence of emotional turmoil, psychological trauma and something dark and sinister that threatens the whole family unit. This plays out more as a family drama during its first two thirds with the horror coming in the form of real emotional upheaval exploited by great lighting, sound effects and camera angles that accentuate every scene. Only the last third of the film starts to become more horrific in the traditional sense as the true meaning of what the family has 'inherited' becomes real. This film is believable, realistic and grounded in a reality that modern day horror genre bending films are increasingly taking advantage of, but all that said, it didn't keep me awake that night, I didn't look under the bed and it didn't keep me thinking long after the credits rolled, unlike 'Paranormal Activity', 'Wolf Creek' and 'Get Out' did. Certainly worth the price of your ticket though.

This film warrants four claps of the clapperboard, from a potential five. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-