Hereditary (dir. Ari Aster)

One of the more affecting, dark and unpleasant experiences at the cinema this past year. Can't get rid of it. It remains and doesn't disappear.

"When it came to make feature directorial debut, filmmaker Ari Aster knew that he wanted to make a film that took suffering seriously, to make something that served as a meditation on grief. Specifically, he wanted to examine how that type of trauma can have a corrosive effect on the entire family unit. The problem for Aster was that, while there are plenty of American films about the messy side of loss, in many of those features, characters ultimately end up stronger, their familial bonds tighter, for having navigated their way through adversity.

That's not what he wanted to make, however.

'There's nothing inherently false about that, we need hope to get out of bed in the morning, but there are some people who don't recover from certain blows - sometimes people go down with the people that they are closest to, said Aster.

I wanted to make a film about that, but if I did make that as a bleak drama that ends on something of a hopeless note, first good luck finding the financing - and then if I do find the financing, I'm not going to have the resources that I had for this film - but then good luck finding an audience for it.' "