Movie: The Father

I thought this was probably going to be a weepy, mawkish rumination on ageing. I saw it because Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman are in it, and I love going to the movies.

It turned out to be one of the best horror movies I've ever seen.

Think back to the first time you saw a dumb teenager back into a dark room, the room where the monster just has to be waiting. You felt frustrated with that teenager and scared for their safety. You shouted at the screen for them to turn around, or call the police, or just leave the spooky place. After a few dozen of those experiences, though, you grew bored. You tried to ignore their stupidity and hoped for something novel to happen. Soon. Meet me half way here, movie, you thought.

Conveying the perspective of real, inevitable horror is hard. We always imagine we could escape it if we were in the movie. We wouldn't do the stupid things the character did that got them into this bad place.

This movie does that hard thing. The monster is our own decay, and using simple, realistic tricks taken from our own minds, it forces us down the dark tunnel, right to the monster.

Maybe this resonates for me more than most people because I've had some personal experience with it. There are things Anthony Hopkins does in this movie, gestures and expressions and movements, that I've seen before, in a family member. I don't know how many other people have experienced that. Maybe a lot.

Chances are probably good that you will experience this movie from one or both sides of this relationship. Seeing it will help you understand, but it won't lessen the horror of it.