Hereditary

October is here, and that means horror movie season.

I’m a fan of the genre. But for a long time, a good horror movie was rare. For every “The Exorcist” or “The Thing” (John Carpenter’s 1982 milestone), there are any number of lackluster slasher flicks and pointless gross-outs with nothing more than jump scares to give an audience a fleeting fright.

Then I found A24.

Back in 2015, my teen daughter and I took in the horror film “The Witch.” No, this was not some found-footage rip-off of “The Blair Witch.” This was a brooding, methodical piece set in the era of New England Puritans and what then amounted to the American wilderness. The film was a steady climb of tension and questioning reality, with an ending that delivered.

A24 was the company behind it. I sought out some of its other works — “Green Room,” “Hereditary,” “Midsommar” and more. Yes, “Tusk” was terrible (A24 took a chance on director Kevin Smith), but the rest were good, and some, such as “Hereditary,” are works of horror genius.

These movies earn their R ratings for violence and bloodshed and scares, but these are horror films for grown-ups, exploring themes such as isolation from society and the baggage we pack with us from childhood. And they are unusual, even cool. “Midsommar,” for example, is a horror film, but it is more akin to classic thrillers such as 1973’s “The Wicker Man” than the dreck of the Saw franchise.

A24 also does a lot more than horror movies. The company produced and distributed the 2016 feature “Moonlight,” which the following year won the Academy Award for best picture.

But I’m looking forward to A24’s latest horror effort, “Lamb.” The trailer alone delivers a bit of a shocker.

— Phil Wright, news editor, East Oregonian