Hereditary-2018

Director Ari Aster

Starring Toni Collette, Alex Wolff

Scott’s Review #837

Reviewed December 6, 2018

Grade: B+

Hereditary (2018) is a horror film that provides quite an unsettling feeling long after the credits have rolled, which is always a positive in my book.

Moreover, the film contains more than a handful of effectively chilling moments and a breathtakingly good performance by its star Toni Collette, who delivers the goods in spades.

The film is the debut project by writer and director Ari Aster, who certainly has a bright future ahead of him.

We meet the Graham family- artist Annie (Collette) and husband Steve, along with sixteen-year-old Peter (Alex Wolff) and thirteen-year-old Charlie, as they mourn the death of Annie’s mother.

As Annie sees an apparition of her mother in her workshop, the mother’s grave is desecrated, prompting her to attend a support group to deal with her problems. When Charlie then tragically dies in a gruesome accident, Annie begins to teeter over the edge, putting her remaining loved ones at risk.

Aster’s story is tremendously hard to follow, leaving many perplexities and unanswered questions about the plot.

Was fellow support group attendee Joan (Ann Dowd) a sinister cultist along with Annie’s mother, or merely a kindly friend trying to help? Did Annie kill her family, or were their deaths fated, a result of an unstoppable force, hence the “hereditary” title?

A post-film synopsis will need to be read by many viewers (myself included) for clarity.

Frightful sequences resonated with me for days following my viewing of Hereditary, so much so that a second viewing may be required.

The decapitation of Charlie is one of the creepiest scenes I have ever witnessed, as well as tidbits such as Annie furiously pounding her head on the attic door, clearly not herself.

Not to be outdone, Steve bursting into flames, and Annie slowly beheading herself with piano wire while coven members look on, may lead to nightmares for days.

Shot in a style that makes the film feel claustrophobic and contained, the camera crew must use props to create a dollhouse aesthetic. Artist Annie’s clay dollhouse, mirroring the families, enhances this point.

The viewer sees a mock version of the real family, and when Annie decides to create a replica of Charlie’s headless body to express herself, the results are dire.

The best part of Hereditary, though, is Colette’s performance.

Flawless as the haggard mother in The Sixth Sense (1999), her role as Annie takes the actress to even greater heights. The woman slowly teeters to the brink of insanity as she awakens one morning to find the headless corpse of her daughter lying in the back seat of her car.

Aster wisely has her discovery and reactions appear off-camera, giving the sequence a high element of anticipatory horror. From this point, we know that Annie will steamroll further into insanity as she realizes her son caused the death of her daughter.

Horror films involving witchcraft or other demonic supernatural elements do not always work for me as I find realistic situations more effective, but Hereditary is atmospheric and compelling.

The film possesses this element throughout its entire run, so we know bad things will happen; we just do not know when.

To further explain, many scenes involve close-ups of characters seemingly deep in thought or shrouded in mystery. Evidence of this is when Peter sits in a classroom hearing Charlie’s habit of clicking teeth. When a trance-like Peter returns to reality, he is confused and slams his head against his desk, breaking his nose.

Aster might have been wise to write a more concrete screenplay instead of leaving the audience unable to add up the parts.

Interpretation is a fine thing, but in the case of Hereditary, the sum may have been greater than the parts. This means that a more satisfying, though not less frightening, ending would be encouraged for his following picture.

Hereditary (2018) is a demonic horror film with a perplexing plot about a family’s hereditary curse and ultimate doom.

Thanks to brilliant acting and some of the most disturbing scenes ever witnessed, the film is a breath of fresh air in the over-saturated horror genre and a welcome debut from an upstart director.

Independent Spirit Award Nominations: Best Female Lead- Toni Collette, Best First Feature