Hereditary Review - Horror from a long lost generation

From my limited exposure to social media trends and groups regarding movies and reviews, it would seem that Hereditary is either "the worst film of the past 10 to 12 years" (an actual quote, the person said worse than Birdemic...) or "the most terrifying film since The Exorcist" (the boring, go to comparison that gets slapped on any new film out). If you want to cut to the chase on this review, it is neither of these things (particularly nothing like the former, and I don't think The Exorcist is all that jazz so I can't quite compare it to that) but it is a pretty great chiller that plays on classic tropes but delivers them in unusual ways.

Hereditary focuses on the escalating woes and horrors suffered by Toni Collette's minitures maker and her family, following the death of her slightly estranged, slightly strange mother. The family group is made up of a stoic, and somewhat playing to type disbelieving dad (Gabriel Byrne), teenager boiling over with angst and regressive behaviour (Alex Wolff), and disarmingly creepy young daughter (Mily Shapiro, doing a lot to freak out the viewer without any effort).

To say that Ari Aster, the director (in his first feature film, like how is this the work of someone trying this for the first time?!) put each family member through the wringer is an understatement. The film is a classic example of the boiling frog: the plot bubbles along, surrounding the players and audience before exploding into a nightmarishly absurd ending that you didn't realise it had been building to all this time.

But to get to this crescendo, it will take patience and investment. This isn't horror in the vein of The Conjuring or Paranormal Activity, with constant jump scares punctuated with pianos and violins being tortured by a sound editor. No, this is much more about creeping dread. "Things" appear without fanfare, so that when you notice "it" you wonder how long has "it" been there, staring back. Every so often the film does go for a full bloodied scare, primed to make you recoil in your seat, but these are few and far between, come at interesting angles, and are all the more effective for it. In fact, the centrepiece of the film is a scene of such extreme violence is heightened so much not by the act but by the punctuation by a deafening silence that lingers long after the impact, that is so effective it left me feeling genuinely sick and short of breath.

Most of the criticisms for this film seem to follow a similar line that it is "boring" "slow" and so on. To an extent I'd agree that it is slow. About a third or so in I could feel my patience being tested as the plot is very much loaded towards the back half of the film and for the first third or so you may be mistaken you are watching an intense, gothic melodrama, without a lot of forward momentum. I think a fair amount of the negative criticism is over the top in nature and has been unnecessarily inflammatory, potentially as a result of similar marketing pitfalls that also befell my favourite horror film The Witch. I say it is again - this is not a whizz bang smash and grab horror. It is insidious but not like Insidious.

Toni Collette is a powerhouse, the camera often slowly zooming in as she matches its paces, slowly unravelling until a crescendo of terror erupts at the end. Gabriel Byrne is fairly standard, playing very much to type as the sceptical father, but he has his moments to shine. The kids are particularly phenomenal, with the aforementioned Shapiro making sure a tongue click will never sound the same again, and Wolff taking his character to dark extremes.

All of these performances are buoyed by a deliberate and predatory visual style. The film opens with a bravura shot following a model home, made by Collette, with the camera zooming in to a room before seamlessly changing to a real life set of a room. Darkness is used exceedingly well throughout the film, often hiding a lurking terror just enough to make you question it. Whilst violence is used sparingly, there are certain scenes of ultra violence that are inventive and shot in a particularly disturbing light, with the filmmaker saving the very best for last.

Hopefully this review has given a slightly more balanced reaction that what has by and large been a divisive film. What I can wholeheartedly say is that if you like films like The Witch, The Babadook, and It Follows, I'd be very surprised if you did not like Hereditary. If The Conjuring, Paranormal Activity and the like are more you thing then I don't think Hereditary is going to be an enjoyable experience for you. But to say this is the worst film in the last 10 to 12 years, worse than Birdemic? Now that, that is truly terrifying.