Confrontation #1: The Wicker Man.
A good one to start with – a classic, that inspired Midsommar (which scared me) among many other films.
To reiterate:
A little girl goes missing in Scotland, policeman tries to investigate, everyone denies the girl existed, pagan shit. Clash of Christianity and Paganism. Apparently inspires Midsommar.
Explainer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGrJVy8dCBI
Step 1: Sypnosis.
Sergeant Neil Howie of the West Highland Police receives an anonymous letter requesting his presence on Summerisle, a remote Hebridean island famed for its popular and unusually abundant fruit produce. A young girl named Rowan Morrison has been missing for a number of months and her mother is being uncooperative with enquiries. Due to the island's isolation it is unlikely she could have left by herself, abduction is suspected.
Already we have a setup for the end. Why is it an abundant fruit harvest? Because they sacrifice kids (and it works). Mother doesn't help because she is in on it.
Howie, a devout and celibate Christian, travels by seaplane to the island and is profoundly disturbed to find a society that worships the old pagan, Celtic gods of their ancestors. Couples copulate openly in the fields, children are taught in school of the phallic importance of the maypole, toads are placed in the mouth to cure whooping cough, and the island has no Christian ministers or priests. Its church and graveyards have long been deconsecrated and are now used for the idiosyncratic burial rituals of the locals, who believe in re-incarnation.
In the course of his investigation, Howie encounters difficulty in extracting information from the islanders, who claim never to have heard of Rowan, and whose own mother insists does not exist. Rooming at The Green Man Inn, where he is introduced to the beautiful young daughter of the landlord, Willow, Howie notices a series of photographs celebrating the island's annual harvests adorning the wall of the bar with each photograph featuring a young girl, the May Queen. The latest photograph is missing due to it being “broken”. No negative exists.
Gaslighting. Ofc, Rowan was the May Queen.
After discovering a grave bearing Rowan Morrison's name in the cemetery, Howie's search eventually brings him into contact with the island's community leader, Laird and de facto figurehead Lord Summerisle, who explains to Howie the island's recent history and culture. Summerisle's grandfather, a distinguished Victorian scientist, developed several new strains of fruit that he believed could prosper in Scotland's climate given the proper conditions. Drawn to Summerisle's unique combination of fertile, volcanic soil and local waters heated by the Gulf Stream, he inculcated in the local populace a belief that the old gods were real and worshipping them by farming the new crop strains would deliver them from their meagre livelihood. The crops bore fruit and the island's Christian clergy were driven away, with the population now embracing pagan teachings wholesale. Enraged by Summerisle's glib comment that the Christian god is “dead”, Howie demands permission to exhume Rowan's body, which Lord Summerisle subsequently grants, confident in the belief that such a deeply religious community as his is incapable of murder. Howie's exhumation of the grave reveals only the body of a hare. He angrily confronts Summerisle once more, declaring that he believes that Rowan Morrison was murdered as part of a pagan sacrifice and that he intends to bring the full weight of the law upon the inhabitants of the island.
Uh oh. Me against the world... always goes bad.
Breaking into the local chemist's shop, Howie discovers that a negative of last year's harvest photograph does in fact exist. It shows Rowan standing amidst a meagre, pathetic group of boxes, indicating that last year's harvest was a poor one and that the crops the island's only means of income had failed. Struck by his recollection of an offhand remark made by Lord Summerisle about appeasing the old gods “when necessary” and by research that indicates pagan societies offer up a human sacrifice in the event of crop failure, Howie deduces that Rowan is in fact still alive and that she is being kept hidden until she can be sacrificed as part of the May Day celebrations to ensure a plentiful harvest for the coming year.
Alright so at this point, who did the anon tip?
Howie spends another night at the Inn where, in the room next to his, Willow sings to him and openly attempts to seduce him. The next morning, discovering that his plane has been sabotaged and is unable to take off, Howie elects to search the island for Rowan himself ahead of the impending May Day parade. Howie ties up the innkeeper and assumes his place as Punch, a principal character of the May Day festival. Disguised, he joins the procession of islanders as they cavort through the town and perform harmless sacrifices to the various lesser gods. Then Lord Summerisle announces that a grimmer sacrifice awaits them, and Rowan is finally revealed, tied to a post. Howie cuts her free and flees through a cave but after a brief chase emerges at another entrance on a precipice where Summerisle and his followers stand waiting for them. Howie is shocked to see Rowan merrily embrace her captors and then notices that he is being surrounded.
Apostle vibes. And betrayal. Classic.
Lord Summerisle explains to Howie that, after painstaking research on their behalf, he specifically was lured to Summerisle by the islanders, who have been successful in a conspiracy to lead him to believe that a missing girl was being held captive against her will, and confirms to him that last year's harvest failed disastrously, threatening the inhabitants with a return to their previously desperate existence and that they have no intention of allowing that to happen. Their religion calls for a sacrifice to be made to the Sun god as Lord Summerisle explains that, “animals are fine, but their acceptability is limited. A young child is even better, but not nearly as effective as the right kind of adult.” Howie's devout Christian lifestyle and his livelihood as a policeman mean that he meets the outstanding criteria for a human that is to be sacrificed to appease the gods he has come of his own free will, with the power of a king and he is a virgin. In spite of his protestations that the crops failed because fruit was not meant to grow on these islands and that next year the sacrifice of Lord Summerisle himself will be called for, Howie is stripped bare, then dressed in ceremonial robes and led to the summit of a cliff with his hands tied. He is horrified to find a giant, hollow wicker man statue which he is then locked inside. The statue is soon set afire. As the islanders surround the burning wicker man and sing the Middle English folk-song “Sumer Is Icumen In”, a terrified Howie curses them and recites Psalm 23 as he prays to God for accession to Heaven. The film ends as the burning head of the wicker man falls from its shoulders, as the sun sets in a blood-red sky.
Yes. A pretty good storyline with no real gore I suppose, good and well-earned scares.
Step 2: Explainer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGrJVy8dCBI
Little aside for Hereditary. The same guy who does this explainer did this – saying it “broke” him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JHXWUongeM
Top 5 most terrifying moments for me: 5. Every time that god damn clicking sound happens – I watched the movie with headphones and it literally sounds like it’s right beside you (they often panned the sound hard left or right) 4. The groaning sound leading up to Charlie entering Annie’s body when the family are all downstairs together, the way the camera pans up along with the sound was ultra creepy 3. Annie waiting up in the corner of the ceiling, just waiting there for like a whole minute 2. Annie creepily flying past in the background of Peter’s room – it was just so surreal and out of nowhere 1. Head banging scene – the exorcist of the 21st century, the inhuman speed and power of it... ughhhh
Also an honourable mention to the smiling naked cult members in the treehouse and the house
For me the scariest scene is right at the beginning of the movie: where the grandmother's ghost is just standing in the corner of the room. You almost don't notice her – the characters never do. But then you see her.
this movie has changed me. i can’t stop thinking about it. it utterly terrified me. i can’t get it out of my head. midsommar was incredible, but it’s nothing like the utter terror of hereditary
The film is an absolute masterpiece but the energy that suffused the film is quite evil. The immorality is in question. At the end – with the amplification of voices that were not in the treehouae and the placement of the camera – Aster quite literally places the audience as a participating member of the ritual. There were many in my packed audience frozen at the end and then murmurs rose asking “dis I just participate in a satanic ritual?”
SPOLIERS Annie in the beginning at the grieving group for her mom, talks about all her MALE family members having mental illness, like schizophrenia. (Alluding to the attempts of King Paimon being brought about, as it must be a male) She also mentions how the grandmother was VERY involved in trying to raise Charlie (I wonder why...). Annie even had a miniature of the grandmother breastfeeding and her watching.
Something that really stuck out to me the next time watching was when Peter is at his class and they discuss the idea of being pawns in a bigger scheme that they cannot control, and whether it is more or less tragic if there is nothing that can be done? > How symbolic!
I'm a huge horror movie buff, and Ari Aster nailed what HORROR is to me. (Midsommar was a masterpiece). I've seen so many horror movies... “horror” movies that just use jumpscares, excessive blood and gore, and cheesy cgi is not horror. There is something about the raw, painfully dense atmosphere created in Ari Aster's films that really tap into the human psyche of anxiety, fear, and pain. The pain of Annie, (what an amazing actress) shook me to the core.
I will never forget the swallowing, sinking feeling in my stomach when Peter killed his sister. Theater talking, friends chatting... as soon as that happened, theater was quiet the rest of the movie as it just got more and more messed up. Absolutely amazing.
Right down this realm, highly recommend Jordan Peele's movies like Get Out and Us. Us is a beautifully written movie as well.
The scene where we transition from an unseen screaming mother to the rotting, ant ridden head of the little girl on the side of the road was possibly one of the most brilliant, most macabre scenes I’ve seen in a horror film this decade. Brilliant film making.
I don't think I've ever seen a movie that has made me feel like this, it's amazing, but it's not enjoyable to watch, it is too depressing, dark, pessimistic, disheartening, hopeless. For example, The Exorcist, just like this one, is a terrifying movie, but there's a sense of hope in the movie, there's good in it, this one just feels ''evil'', it's hard to explain the feelings that this movie evokes, but that's the best way I can describe it.
As another aside, I am going to watch some Jonathan Pageau videos – see what the symbol master (and Orthodox Christian) has to say on horror and occult symbolism.
There's a relationship between sacred space and horror. Horror is a category that transcends the rational. Horror exposes the darkest fears we have to overcome by being brave and virtuous.
(My god is Wim Hof Method amazing. Even just 10-15 breathes can change your whole mental state.)
Horror is part of the sacred in Christianity. The Cross – horror. Be not afraid – the terrifying angels. Horror is just one sided, that's the problem with it – encountering the monsters on the edge of the world.
There's a relationship between awe and terror. Imagine being an 11yo and a 6'5 warrior steps out in front of you. You'd be scared, impressed... etc.
The angels are terrifying when they appear.
You need to keep the dark stories in the bible – they act as a balance to keep you from thinking that you have it all figured out. Islam tried to eliminate all the weird stories in the bible (incest, genocide, etc)
The purpose of stories that don't make sense – the fringe, the margin – is not to make you think you should do them – but to stop you thinking you have it all figured out.
Satanism: anti-Christianity. The willingness to sacrifice our social fabric for the sick. The importance of the individual.
Just went out and came back from CrossFit, changed the bedsheets. Now 9:20pm. I don't want a repeat of yesterday, sleeping at 5am.
Nah, I'm setting myself these targets: • Drink water • Write up – yes just write up – my paper notes onto Dev Requests • Finish my Jonathan Pageau videos
On DMT: https://youtu.be/SkJ6fbbE9BI
bad trips come from our inability to surrender”. This. Times a thousand, definitely can confirm.
“We want to be distracted, mindless entertainment, mindless scrolling – we don't want to search and face what's been suppressed.”
Let's goooo. Water, Jonathan, paper notes. Or sleep before finish. Who knows. Sleepy bye bye.