Hereditary (2018)

A grieving family is haunted by tragic and disturbing occurrences.

The first appearance from filmmaker Ari Aster.

Do I think this is one of the greatest horror films of all time, like certain corners of the internet?  No.  Absolutely not.

Do I think it's a hell of a good time, with a few key scenes that are effective as hell?  Damn straight.  I've already stated a dozen times that I like slow burns, and this is another one that crawls.  Just be wanred that if you don't enjoy the thought of a 2+ hour runtime that's going to build tension the entire time, this is probably not gonna be the movie for you.

Toni Collette and the kids do a fantastic job as well.

Doctor Sleep (2019)

Years following the events of The Shining (1980), a now-adult Dan Torrance must protect a young girl with similar powers from a cult known as The True Knot, who prey on children with powers to remain immortal.

How many sequels have I included so far?  It can't be too many.  Aliens, Evil Dead II, Army of Darkness, and... is that it?  3?  Out of the over 80 years I've covered to this point?  That's impressive.

So calling the follow-up to The Shining one of the greatest horror sequels of all time is a bold statement.  Especially one that didn't exactly have the same amount of impact on the genre as the original did.  Or when it's a movie where many fans like to claim that the book is better.

Well, I've read the book, and I disagree.  In it, Stephen King made many of the same errors he always makes.  He meanders.  He gets off track.  And he gets to the end, without a plan (this is documented), and proceeds to make things up.  That approach doesn't usually work for endings, and I don't really care for the book's ending.

The movie on the other hand, completely changes the ending, for the better in my opinion.  And it does it by actually tying Doctor Sleep and The Shining together.

See, that was another complaint of mine with the book.  It's a sequel to The Shining, starring Danny Torrance, but in reality he could have been anyone.  It could have been a brand new story.  It made almost no real difference.

The movie aims to correct that, and I think it's a change for the better.

Also, the villains are far more menacing in the movie.  Fact.

Midsommar (2019)

A couple travels to Northern Europe to visit a rural hometown's fabled Swedish mid-summer festival.

Another Ari Aster film, already?

Probably one of the best back-to-back performances we've seen from the horror world in a very long time, it's amazing that he managed to spit out not one, but two great films in such a short span.  And I'd even argue that Midsommar is probably the better of the two.

I don't want to spoil anything with the plot (not that you won't see where things are going right away), but the entire thing brings back memories of a certain 1970s film that I already fawned over previously.  It shouldn't be hard to guess which one.