Should Hoard Be Considered a Horror Movie?

 

Credit to Hoard (2023) — IMDb

I have recently watched the movie Hoard, that was finally released online for me to purchase and check out.

After watching this film, I’m curious if maybe we could consider it as a horror film. Maybe it’s more along the lines of a psychological horror, that follows the story of a girl named Maria.

In the beginning of the film, we see how her childhood was like.

It wasn’t exactly perfect. Her school life sucks, she lives in a hoarding home, and she unfortunately has to deal with other terrifying dangers outside of her home at a young age.

Luckily, her mother’s love is what keeps her happy with her life.

Until one of the hoard piles in her home collapses on top of her mother. Maria is then taken away to live in a foster home, where she is adopted and grows up. Maria is now 18 years old and is now happy from the looks of it.

She has a best friend, she is a free spirit, and she is loved by the woman that took her into her home.

But sometimes all good things can come to an end.

Maria’s trauma catches up with her, when she finds herself drawn to trash.

Hoarding was the only way for her to remember her mother by, and she views trash almost like a sign of love. Her life gets even more crazy when she meets a man named Michael, who shares her interests with her in order to win her heart.

Once they get into their relationship, their romance is taken to next level batshit insanity.

Maria has Michael use an iron on her to brand her skin, and there is even one scene where they both take a bite out of her mother’s ashes.

I wish I was joking…but I’m not.

It’s obvious by this point in the movie that Maria is going down this terrifying spiral. Michael has also fallen into a downward spiral with her, due to some trauma he endured in his past, and he disregards his wife who is pregnant with his kid.

It’s pretty much a tale of two sad individuals who are stuck in a cycle of trauma.

Credit to Hoard is a daringly original British film — New Statesman

You will feel so bad for both of them, knowing that they are in desperate need of some kind of help. I don’t think I have ever seen a film that really focuses on mental health in such a heavy state.

I struggled to get through so many scenes with both of them, and I felt so broken by the time they had finally begun to slowly snap out of it.

Michael realizes that he must leave Maria, because she will never love him. Watching him leave with his wife in a calm state with no shred of emotion was so sad, and I was so surprised to see that his wife took him back.

I think she knew that he was going through something, and she was the only one that could help him get through it.

Maria luckily had the woman who adopted her, and she began to help her get through her hoarding obsession, helping her clean up all the trash she had began to pile up in her home.

It’s a nice ending to both of their characters, knowing that they are finally going to move on and hopefully heal from their wounds.

Hoard is a great film that will leave you crying, laughing, physically disgusted, shocked, and relieved.

In my opinion, this film is secretly disguised as a horror movie.