Victoria McKinney

(no spoilers) Hereditary - 2018 - A24 5/5 Gripping, disturbing and subversive 2018 arthouse horror, Hereditary is the feature film debut of writer and director Ari Aster. Annie's mother's death leaves her family grieving, and strange events unfold, leading to the revelation of her horrifying ancestry. Part-horror, part-drama, this film is a masterpiece. Every element - writing, acting, cinematography, plot, music - is perfection. As a seasoned horror fanatic, I rarely come across a film that genuinely scares me. However, Hereditary shook me to my very core. The plot has so much depth: subversive themes (grief, heritage, mental illness, the occult). So many elements of this film that I love. I could go on for pages. The acting (Toni Collette, Alex Wolff, Millly Shapiro, Gabriel Byrne and Ann Dowd) is frightening and disturbing, but also at times sad and very tragic. The pace is orchestrated to the absolute millisecond; delivering slow and drawn out that test your patience on purpose, but also slap-in-the-face mouth-wide-open shock and jumps. What feels initially like a ‘typical’ horror jump scare demonic film is in fact a twisted, genre-defying drama that left me reflecting on it long after it was finished. Though I understand reviewers who claim the plot was slow and confusing, I think this movie is like a fine wine: best served to those who appreciate its quality. It’s for seasoned horror fanatics and aficionados looking for something different in the genre. 5/5 stars. A masterpiece. Possibly one of the scariest films in the last twenty years, in my opinion.

Season 2 is much better. Fills in a lot of gaps and stays true to the untold tales between the Silmarillion (ie. the birth of the Tolkien world to Lord of the Rings). I have been referring to his texts up to episode 5 and it’s mostly true to Tolkien’s writings…so far anyway. Galadriel’s acting and pronunciation is the one thing that stops me from giving it 5 stars. So annoying and over the top. UPDATE: Having finished season 2 I changed my rating, from 4* to 5*. This season was INCREDIBLE and I am so excited for the next. It’s absolutely spot on with the Silmarillion and other Tolkien writings. I loved it so much! I want to watch it all again (both seasons).

Loved it! Such a great movie! Rutger Hauer is great.

Absolutely amazing!! Watch in the cinema if possible to get a fuller experience!

Beautiful, haunting and mesmerising

Everyone has a right to tell their story and give their version of things that happen to them, and everyone of us can relate to that. I think it’s important to remember this fact if you choose to watch this. It is just the people involved giving their version of events. You can question their methods of doing that, but you cannot deny them that. Then you can choose whether or not you take part in it. Let them have their say, hope they will feel better for it, and then hopefully they will quietly recoil with their family and friends, avoiding drawing attention to themselves and just getting on with what they want to give back to the world. I hope they will, anyway. But, let them have their say. I think Harry and Meghan have been quite tasteful so far in that they have taken great care not to point fingers who show and negativity towards their Royal relatives. A lot of what they talk about is quite specific about their experiences. While it is hard to watch sometimes, and sometimes sounds like a pity party, it is really refreshing to hear their version of events from them directly. It certainly hasn’t changed my opinions whatsoever. I have always been agnostic about Harry, I have also always been agnostic about the King and Prince William. That doesn’t change. And if anything, I appreciate the senior Royals even more for their hard work, sacrifice: because they don’t get to have a Netflix documentary and have their say. I wouldn’t want to be a Royal for anything. I don’t envy their fate for a single second, and I admire HRH King Charles, Camilla, Prince and Princess of Wales for bearing that burden and duty with the greatest elegance. Harry made a choice and that was his to make. Fair play to him. But he can’t have the best of both worlds. He cannot leave and expect the privileges. It might be his birth-right but that does not come without duty. I think Harry gets this, maybe Meghan less so. However, I am happy for Harry. They seem like a wonderful match and have made a very happy family. And well, who doesn’t want the world to be filled with more people like this. But the world is not binary, and the British public is also a reluctant, nevertheless powerless, consumer of tabloid rhetoric. I remember the moment Diana died (I was 7) and my brother woke me and my mum up in the middle of the night. You cannot get away from Harry and his story as a Brit, even if you are too young to have ever read a newspaper, never mind a tabloid. So in some way, even though I have never really cared much either way for the Royal Family, and the monarchy, I feel we can’t escape it. And so I am really happy that Harry found happiness. I think they are great together. But then what about his brother William? He has no choice but to accept the life he has been given. And I am sure there are times when William would like to up sticks with his family and give it all up. But he has a sense of duty and loyalty, and his own brother is painfully going through this while not being able to have his say but while still being expected to ‘perform’. It must be tremendously hard on Will and his father, because neither of them have done anything to deserve this. And I wonder if they feel like, regardless of the circus, this little documentary, that they have lost their brother and son. And that is tragic. So, I am enjoying it so far, would recommend it if you can have some patience and a little open-mindedness. I hope they have their say, feel better for it and then (no disrespect to them) bugger off. Lol :)

Finished and completed Blair Witch in about 1.5 days! I think Bloober Team/Lionsgate Games made an absolutely brilliant game, apparently with limited resources and using an open-source engine (Unreal Engine). Many comments point to confusion and running around for hours but that’s the point! In the film, the characters feel they are going round in circles and getting lost. That is exactly the psychological horror and uncertainty that the game captures. It is *supposed* to make you feel uneasy and uncertain. The mechanics are simple but the gameplay is authentic. I felt at times I was losing my mind! I lost the dog and spent a good 45 mins trying to find him. But that is the Blair Witch experience captured by the movies. At times there are some chapters, such as the last one (Chapter 17), that drag a little bit. Also it is a bit glitchy: I had a restart a couple of times. Saving function doesn’t work well at least on mine (PS) it didn’t and kept returning me to latest checkpoint and ignoring my save points. So I had to repeat sections. But those are functional rather than creative issues. However I don’t think these impacted my experience much. Bravo to the game designers, and I do recommend but only if you are patient enough to not write it off when you start to feel frustrated and lost. Remember: It’s a game and there are mechanics. Keep at it and you will beat it!

Another Netflix show with terrible writing. And seriously, Ali Wong needs to take off that woolly hat.

Well, I thought McDonald’s was created by a man called Ronald McDonald so this film was educational for me 😂🤣