Released: June 2018
Director: Ari Aster
Rated R
Run Time: 127 Minutes
Distributor: Lionsgate Studios/A24
Genre: Horror/Drama
Cast:
Toni Collette: Anni
Alex Wolff: Peter
Gabriel Byrne: Steve
Milly Shapiro: Charlie
Ann Dowd: Joan
I’ve been a massive fan of the horror genre since I was a kid. I’ve seen a lot of horror movies over the years, from Last House on the Left to Friday The 13th to Cannibal Holocaust. I’ve pretty much seen nearly everything under the sun when it comes to horror. During that time I’ve seen a lot of great horror movies like The Exorcist to generic garbage like Pulse. Great horror movies aren’t necessarily difficult to come by, but you do have to sift through some serious shit to get to the really good stuff. However, over the past 15-20 years, the genre has seen an upswing of cheap, weak-ass horror flicks made for the whiny teen crowd who can’t handle serious horror. Movies like Slender Man and The Bye-Bye Man are not what I consider real horror as they rely far too much on cheap jump scares. To me, that’s not effective horror at all. The best horror films don’t just make you jump, but they get under your skin and make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. Movies like The Exorcist, The Omen, and The Witch understood this very well and are among some of the best examples of the genre. Well, I have another one that really deserves to counted among the best: Hereditary.
Opening at a memorial service, Annie is delivering a eulogy to her recently deceased mother who was abusive and manipulative. After the funeral, Annie and her family head home to try and live a normal life. Peter wants to hang out with his friends and smoke weed, Annie wants to continue to work on her miniatures, Charlie is just trying to stay unnoticed and focus on her artwork as a way of dealing with things. Steve is just trying to hold everything together, until Peter goes to a party with his sister. I’m not going to go further into the story and plot details, because that would be venturing into spoiler territory. It’s a great story, but for me, it’s one that really hits close to home. This is a movie about a family that’s struggling to come to terms with grief after dealing with so much tragedy. The themes in this film show how grief can actually tear a family apart instead of bringing them together. When you’re dealing with so much tragedy in such a short span of time, it can be very damaging emotionally as well as physically. The film also shows how some of this suffering can be passed down from generation to generation. There are supernatural elements that enter the picture after a certain point that don’t actually feel out of place, but I’ll discuss those elements later.
Let’s discuss the acting first. Hereditary is one of the most well-acted horror films I’ve ever seen. Everyone in this film does a fantastic job. It’s a very risky thing when you put children into a film like this, because you have no idea how they are going to react to certain things. Thankfully, the two youngsters that are in this film do a great job. Milli Shapiro as Charlie is simply amazing. This is her first movie and for somebody her age, it would have been very easy to see her go overboard. Not so with little Milli. She actually manages to keep her performance very low-key and powerful, even with very little dialogue. A lot of her acting can be seen in her face and her eyes. While you can clearly sympathize with the character due to her…issues, you also can’t help but think that there’s something not entirely right with the girl. Milli just knocks it out of the park. Alex Wolff as Peter is incredible. How his character reacts to certain situations, Peter brings to life in some of the most realistic ways possible. While Gabriel Byrne isn’t given a ton to do, he still manages to ground everything in a fairly logical way and is just trying to keep his family from falling apart. Gabriel Byrne is one of those actors that is absolutely incredible to watch. The real star of the show, though is Toni Collette as Annie. This is one of the greatest performances in a horror movie, period. Toni is tasked with so much, not just physically, but emotionally as well. Her character is trying to keep it together, but as events unfold, we begin to see Annie to start losing control, and Toni puts everything into the role. It’s heartbreaking and terrifying at the same time, given the things that she goes through.
Fear, like humor, is a very subjective thing. What one person finds scary, another doesn’t. Is Hereditary going to scare everybody? No. No, it’s not. It didn’t scare me, per se. What it did do, and the best horror films should always try to do this, is get under my skin. There’s a lot of disturbing imagery in this film, and there is a scene about 30 minutes in that changes things considerably. Anybody who has seen this film will know which scene I’m talking about. It left me surprisingly shocked. There are certain supernatural elements that do enter the picture at some point that make the film take a much darker turn. It was dark enough already, but these events really make things a lot more tense. There are moments where you’ll see something out of the corner of your eye, and like the characters, you try to focus on that particular image. It’s that kind of film-making that really adds to the tension and atmosphere. This is Ari Aster’s first full-length movie as a director, but it doesn’t feel like it, that’s how good he is and I can’t wait to see what else he’s got coming up.
When I said that this movie hits pretty close to home, I meant it. As someone who has dealt with a lot of tragedy in the span of a few short months, I can definitely relate to the characters in this film. There is a point at which you think you’re going insane. You don’t want to believe that this stuff happened. I’m still struggling a bit with what’s happened over the past few months, so that’s one of the reasons why Hereditary got under my skin. Was it a good idea to watch this movie even while dealing with everything that I’ve been dealing with? I think it was necessary. I was and kind of still am in a bit of an emotionally vulnerable spot, so the film affected me more than most films of this type. Even though the film is very dark and fraught with tragedy, in some ways it’s actually been fairly helpful in helping me confront the grief that’s still affecting me. Is everybody going to have the same reaction that I did to the film? No. Some people are going to hate it, while others are going to be rather indifferent, and that’s okay. It’s not a movie for everyone. I appreciate the film because it has the audacity to make things personal. By making a horror film personal, you are speaking to a particular group of people on that level and that can be far more effective than simple jump scares. That is what I feel that Hereditary did, and I’m absolutely grateful for having seen it.
My Final Recommendation: 9.5/10.