Navigating festival hype is a tricky business. Folks see a
movie in the film festival bubble, with film festival goggles, and before you
know it, there’s a swirling eddy of buzz and hyperbole calling a particular
offering one of the greats. That happens all the time, especially at Sundance,
which may or may not still be happening, I don’t know. All too often, the hype
either subsides, we never hear from the film again, or when it does hit, it’s
straight dookie. I can’t count how many times that’s happened. This year, one
of the next best biggest greatest was Ari Aster’s horror mystery
Hereditary, and while I’m wary or the hype monster, hot damn
this first trailer. This is fire, both literally and figuratively.
