"HEREDITARY".......CRITICS VS. POPCORN GOBBLERS......

Hereditary(2018)     And we thought the political divisions inside the U.S. were bad..........

                     That's nothing compared to the Grand Canyon-sized divide that separates film critics from Multiplex crowds......

                      Especially when it comes to horror movies.........

                      Film critics generally sneer at mass-market horror........but once any independent director layers on the moodiness and film festival high purpose to a scare flick, watch those critics roll over like puppies snapping at a bacon treat.

                      All well and good......until the Multiplex crowds settle down in their plush new seats, clutching 8 dollar tubs of popcorn heavily slathered with that stuff Trump rubs all over his face.....

                     Guess what? They ain't dealin' with any 2 hour long horror movie slowed down to a crawl by its artsy-smartsy pretensions...….

                     Exhibit A:  "Hereditary"...….beloved by critics and handed a 'D minus' score in the Cinemascore exit poll. 

                     To put it succinctly......critics shouted 'Bravo!'  The paying customers shouted 'It sucks!'

                     It is possible, at times, for filmmakers attempting horror films to deftly bridge that  'art-vs.-commerce' gap......making movies that aspire to cinematic excellence while still scaring the bejeezus out of the crowds. William Friedkin did it with "The Exorcist" and so did Roman Polanski with "Rosemary's Baby".....(from which we suspect 'Hereditary' took some its inspiration.....)

                     But filmmakers today who appeal solely to the film festival culture-vultures run the risk of infuriating the only demographic that shows up to pull bucks out of their wallets to see the damn movie.

                    'Hereditary', as you've might have already guessed, drags on interminably as it grindingly plows through a family afflicted by psychosis, dysfunction, Satanism and assorted ghosts.....

                     Horrible, horrible things afflict these poor bastards...…..in perpetual slow motion. The mom (Toni Collette) spends almost the entire film in shrieking hysteria while her befuddled hubby (Gabriel Byrne) remains clueless.

                      To be fair, the movie doesn't cheat you out of creepiness and repulsive violence...….when the time comes for the story to go full batshit crazy......it delivers, for whatever that's worth to you.

                      But after 2 hours of self-absorbed, glacially paced storytelling...…..it's questionable whether anyone's left in the audience to care.

                      We didn't. 1 & 1/2 stars (* 1/2)…..mostly for Collette's full throttle, pull the stops out work here. If only the movie itself had attained her level of sheer wack-itude….. As for the rest, we're with the folks who filled out those Cinemascore polls.....