Hereditary Review
Hereditary (2018) Directed by Ari Aster
Hereditary is a supernatural horror film from first time director Ari Aster. It follows the Graham family, mostly the matriarch Annie (played by Toni Collette), as it falls apart. The movie starts with the funeral of Annie's mother and revolves around the lasting aftereffects her death has on the family.
SPOILERS!!!
This is not just a movie about a grieving family, however. Yes, Annie decides to confront her pent up feelings about her deceased mother and her daughter, Charlie (Milly Shapiro), does show some grieving of her dead grandmother. BUT that just ends up being a small aspect of the overall story. About a third into the movie, Charlie is gruesomely decapitated after a freak mishap where she has an allergic reaction to nuts and her stoned brother frantically drives her home with her head out the window. A dead animal in the road and a telephone pole later and Charlie is gone from the world. The brother, Peter, is so shaken that he leaves her body in the car while he goes to bed. Annie finds out and, rightfully so, is emotionally destroyed. These two reactions to Charlie's death comes to a head a few times in the movie because Peter already feels guilty but Annie feels as if he's taking her death in stride.
THIS is where the movie starts to fall into the realm of generic horror for me. Annie meets a lady who tells her that there is a way to communicate with her dead daughter. Annie jumps at the chance. But the lady is part of a cult that twists the family into doing their duty. What's the cult's job? To make sure their dark master has a young male vessel: Peter. Annie is lucid one moment and possessed the next. Random scary things start happening. It's really only unveiled at the end that this is what's happening and while it is fun when a movie goes in a completely different direction than where you were guessing, this left me feeling unfulfilled.
There are aspects of Hereditary that are nuanced and timid. Then there are aspects that are over the top and almost comedic. For example, the son (Peter, played by Alex Wolff) is underutilized in the first half of the movie so it's hard to give him sympathy and he basically becomes the most important character. Alex Wolff's cry is laughably bad, like a child who didn't get any cake. The father, played by the (usually) great Gabriel Byrne, is the major skeptic of the family. His character doesn't transcend past the simple, denying husband role though. And (STILL SPOILERS!) when he is engulfed in fire, it's almost as a joke because he's standing there like a dummy and Annie is frozen in horror. Oh, and the reason the grandmother gave up her family's rights to not be possessed? GOOOOOLD! She loves GOOOOOLD!
These things in the final act of Hereditary just don't feel earned or believable in the world the first two acts set up. Yes, there are the most scary parts in the third act, but the ending left me wanting to see just a more straightforward horror about a grieving family. No crazy cult, no demon possession. Just a mother at her wits end and the mental instability that the family faces. Once Peter started to see his "evil face" in his reflection I knew that all the nuance was gone. Hereditary has been hailed as "this year's The VVitch!" but that movie knew when and how much to play its supernatural aspects. For all the praise that Hereditary is getting with critics, I just feel like it ends up being okay. I have a very sizable collection of movies, but there's no place for Hereditary in it.