June 8th in Chicago, IL. My wife and I saw this trailer back in March and had penciled June 8th on the calendar. The trailer seemed to have a lot of what we enjoy (it's more my wife who enjoys this stuff but I can get into it): supernatural horror and a creepy kid.
Ari Aster wrote and makes his debut as a feature director. The film stars Toni Collette as Annie, a miniature artist. Gabriel Byrne is Annie's husband Steve, work from therapist. Alex Wolff is Annie and Steve's oldest son Peter and Milly Shapiro is their youngest daughter Charlie. Annie's mother has just passed away and Annie delivers the eulogy. When Annie explains her relationship with her mother, it was not only strange, it was weird. Deeply weird.
After the funeral, Charlie seems to be acting weird but no one really notices. Peter just seems to want to score girls and smoke pot like a regular teenage boy in Utah. Annie works on her miniatures, which mirrors her life which is creepy and Steve just tries to hold it all together. Oh and the grave gets desecrated. Tragedy strikes the family again, in a very gruesome way, and Annie seeks solace in a a support group where she meets Aunt Lydia (the character's name is Joan). Joan is not what she seems and things go down an even darker path that sees Annie slowly descend into madness.
This film had a budget of $10 million and has currently made $44 million worldwide. That's a good haul for being out two weeks. The film received a 90 % Rotten Tomatoes rating and even made Rolling Stone's list of best 2018 films so far. The film tackles issues like family dysfunction and mental illness. Both play a big part. Aster does a nice job of building the tension but sometimes he tries to be too clever. I don't think the film is as great as everyone seems to think. Look, it's a good creepy film. It wasn't the horror masterpiece I expected. Those high expectations are a me problem. The film seems to have a Rosemary's Baby type ending. The film draws comparisons to 2015's The Witch. Another slow burn tension builder with a bit of a head scratch ending.
I was disappointed that this film was not a horror masterpiece, but it never set out to be. The film is a metaphor for family dysfunction and mental illness, which Annie mentioned that it ran in her family. I dig films where the protagonist loses it. The film had things I like but something didn't sit right with me. It's an interesting film to watch and I encourage people to see it. It's not a film that you need to see in a theater per se but it would be wrong for me to say it's not worth viewing.
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