Hereditary: Review

I have been very excited to see this film after hearing so many great things from fellow horror fans and last night, I finally got to see Ari Aster’s ‘Hereditary’! Unfortunately my viewing experience was ruined for the most part by ignorant, rude and disrespectful fellow movie goers, but I will not let that effect the review of the film itself but it is something a may delve in to in another post. But without further a due, here is my review of ‘Hereditary’!

First of all, I want to say that Aster’s direction is fantastic, he creates an intense atmosphere from the very beginning by the means of long drawn out shots that allow the suspense to ferment as we await the next shot. There is a wise array of eye grabbing imagery captured and created through out the film that boldly sets it apart from other genre films. Aster also worked incredibly well in bringing the actor’s to give their full potential with astounding performances across the cast.
The whole in film family perform with a great amount of conviction, particularly Toni Collete (The Sixth Sense) as Annie Graham gives a tortured and demented display of emotions that caused the film to be a riveting and uncomfortable watch as we observe what appears to be a complete descent in to madness. Milly Shapiro joins the growing range of child actors in horror films that exceed all expectations, with a haunting performance as Charlie Graham, a disturbed and vulnerable young girl. I could go on about each terrific performance but these two in particular are the stand outs.

My main issue with the film is some of the dialogue and a particular plot device moment. writing wise some lines come across poorly written grammatically which personally took me out of the film as soon as it was said. This may seem like nothing but when you are wanting the full immersion that horror can provide to give the best scares, the last thing you want is to be taken out of said immersion. There also comes an exposition focused monologue near close to the end of the film that essentially explains a great deal of what we witness, which I am in two minds of as it seemed very obvious that it was filling in the audience, but equally,  if they had not done that, I feel I may be missing some important information. As for the plot device, I won’t spoil anything that happened but around the half way mark our protagonist is shown something by a friend and instructed how to do it. If you have seen the film, you should know what I am talking about. I did feel this part of the film to be quite surprising as it felt very mainstream and expected in comparison to the rest of this viciously original story. While these factors did bother me somewhat, it didn’t spoil the rest of the film for me too much.

Imagery plays a massive part in this film, whether it be beautifully composed shots that hammer home a point, image or idea, or the way in which shapes can be used to misdirect our expectations as they questionably appear as spectres in the dark before closer inspection reveals nothing to be out of the ordinary. There are also dream sequences where these visuals are put to great effect that are immensely chilling.

So, is ‘Hereditary’ scary? While fear is subjective, this is one of those films where that is the case more than ever. I found this film incredibly unnerving, disturbing, upsetting and intense. Moments in this film had me frozen with fear (as much as a film can anyway) but ‘Hereditary’ is not a film for everyone. There is a large family drama element that may not be for everyone, and a strong use of abstract imagery and story telling later on in the film that has caused a very mixed reaction (including my screening which resulted in the more immature of movie goers to laugh and shout at the film) so if you see this film, and I think that you should, please keep that in mind and go in with an open mind.

I am going to give ‘Hereditary’ 86%!

Have you seen ‘Hereditary? If so what did you think about it? Let me know in the comments and lets talk about it! If you have read this whole review before ever looking in to anything about this movie then you can check out the trailer below!
Thanks for reading!