The horror of “Hereditary Misfortune” comes from the thrilling sense of uneasiness. With the super-high level of performance, photography and sound effects, such a delicate horror film is quite rare to see.Genetic Misfortune, launched by the independent film brand A24, is one of the most eye-catching horror films in 2018. The first feature film of the director, Ali Esther, won a good reputation after the premiere of the Japanese Dance Film Festival that year. Although it can be seen that it was inspired by many classic horror films in terms of themes, it has a very mature presentation in terms of script, role and photography, and the overall level of refinement is quite rare.
The story of “Hereditary Misfortune” revolves around a family who lives in the big house of Noah. They are the heroine Annie (played by Tony Colette) who makes mini models as her career, the male host Steven (played by Gabriel Bourne) who tries to maintain the family’s feelings The sullen little daughter Charlie (played by Millie Sharplow) and the rebellious eldest son Peter (played by Alex Wolf).
At the beginning of the story, they are dealing with the aftermath of their grandmother who just passed away. It seems that they are just an ordinary family mourning for their relatives. However, with the development of the story, more and more strange events have gradually revealed the unknown secrets of the family.
Most of the stories in the film take place in this unusual house. The huge living room and empty corridor make the air filled with strange atmosphere. However, the room full of model houses and sundries has a claustrophobic sense of oppression. Such scene design provides a unique environment for the atmosphere of the whole film, and “Genetic Misfortune” does not waste any precious minute on the screen.
From the first act, “Genetic Misfortune” shows that this is a horror film that highly depends on photography skills. A large number of long shots and slow motion of the mirror excite the nerves of the audience, and the following shots of the characters also make full use of the terrain around the corner of the room, making the audience fear the unknown like the characters in the play. The exquisite use of these photography skills makes “Genetic Misfortune” especially suitable for presentation on the big screen, There are even some shadows of the classic horror film “Shining”.
At the beginning of the promotion of “Genetic Misfortune”, the selling point was “horror”. However, in fact, the whole film did not have too many blatant frightening passages, and even hardly used sudden shock. The thrilling atmosphere of the whole film was based on the “feeling of unease” like sitting on pins and needles. No matter the plot, dialogue, or even the sound effect design, it often sent out a creepy shiver.
Although sometimes the narrative pace tends to be slow, the suspense atmosphere of the whole film is as tense as an arrow at the end of the line, with a sense of suffocation that is difficult to vent, which is quite charming for the audience who does not reject the slow pace.
Surprisingly, “Hereditary Misfortune” adds a lot of black humor elements in the middle of the story, and such humor usually comes from the sarcasm of the characters in the film about these strange events, so it complements the overall plot and does not make people feel unexpected.
Aside from the extremely excellent thriller atmosphere, the excellent character description and performance in the film alone have made “Hereditary Misfortune” worth seeing. These four family members have their own three-dimensional personality and clear positioning in the story.
The story of “Hereditary Misfortune” extends outwards with Annie at the center, so her transformation in the film is the main driving force to promote the plot. The tenderness, fear, anger and neuroticism she shows are often only between the lines. Such a complex role appears to be easy under the performance of Toni Colette, and the instantaneous transformation of different emotions is quite natural, such a super-high level performance, Let her win the favor of many delivery dates.
In addition to Annie, three other family members also performed very well in the film, especially the performance of two children actors. Charlie, the youngest daughter played by Millie Sharplow, is undoubtedly one of the highlights of this film. It is not too much to say that she is the most disturbing child role in recent years.
But what really has to be mentioned is Alex Wolf, who plays Pitt. His performance in the film with great contrast adds more layers to the role and story, and becomes more and more exciting as the plot develops.
Although “Genetic Misfortune” is a horror film, the excellent script describes the interaction between these family members quite persuasively, and describes their helpless fate in great detail, so that “Genetic Misfortune” is not only a horror film with extreme horror, but also can be regarded as a family love film describing family tragedy at some level.
The following content involves the plot, please read carefully
The clearly structured “Hereditary Misfortune” can be roughly divided into three acts: the first act ends at a surprising turning point, the second act focuses on the mysterious Joan (played by Ann Donald) breaking into Annie’s life, and the third act is the final climax of the story and the revelation of the event.
In the first two parts of “Hereditary Misfortune”, both reached the impeccable level. Under various suspensions, the audience kept guessing the possible causes and consequences of the story. On the whole, it was very successful. However, the third act of the final act was quite different.
The audiences of horror films often have great differences in their preferences for the so-called “horror”. Some people like thrillers that have nothing to do with the supernatural, some people like ghost films, and some people prefer physical monsters. Such differences make the ending of “Genetic Misfortune” not necessarily meet everyone’s expectations.
In particular, the devil “King Palmer” is quite strange to most audiences, and may make people feel a little shocked after it is revealed. However, after carefully observing the story of the whole film again, this ending is actually the only reasonable and inevitable development direction of the plot.
The devil’s attempt to parasitize Pete’s body is not an unexpected turning point. In fact, the whole story of “Hereditary Misfortune” is full of foreshadows from beginning to end. Even from the direction of mirror operation in the first act, the main axis of the whole story has been pointed out. In this picture, the camera slowly moves from the tree house (cult church) to Pete’s room in the model house, which means that the devil in the story always takes Pete as the target, These four family members are just pawns in a cult plan. Such stories also have the flavor of the 1968 horror film Rosemary’s Baby.
Because of this, the title “Hereditary” (meaning heredity, usually referring to disease) can be said to be quite consistent with the whole story. The family is deeply cursed by the previous generation, and their lives are at the mercy of others like the model house made by Annie (or from another perspective, Annie’s model is also subconsciously trying to regain the control that has been lost for a long time), and then fall into a broken fate step by step.
The whole story implies the unusual past of the family with a large number of foreshadows, but most of them are quite obscure. It may take many times to discover more clues, and the story with imagination space can also let the audience have different interpretations. The exquisite plot that can cause extensive discussion is the most interesting point of “Genetic Misfortune” in addition to the excellent terrorist atmosphere.
