Hello Herman (2012) poster
2012 · drama · supernatural

Hello Herman

Directed by Michelle Danner1h 28m2012
ElsewhereIMDb5.51kRT20%Metacritic27
  • heavy
  • measured
  • extreme
  • bleak
  • cold
Movie DNA

Heavy, measured, extreme drama / supernatural, grounded in texture. Nihilistic, mid-stakes, cold, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

Set in the not so distant future, in Any Town USA, sixteen-years-old Herman Howards makes a fateful decision. He enters his suburban school and kills thirty nine students, two teachers, and a police officer. Just before his arrest, he emails his idol, famous journalist Lax Morales, sending him clips of the shootings captured with Herman's own digital camera. In the clips Herman tells Lax, "I want to tell my story on your show". Lax, haunted by his own past, is now face to face with Herman.

Our read · Hello Herman (2012) reads as a heavy, measured, grounded drama · supernatural entry — extreme in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, cold in temperature, nihilistic in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

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The shape of Hello Herman

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want a serious drama interrogating the motives and aftermath of a school shooting.

ends unsettlingit leaves you shakensteady all the waygrips by minute 10attention 4/5earns its length
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upgraphic violencechild peril

Skip it tonightAny depiction or discussion of school shootings and mass violence is off the table.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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