Hereditary. Chances are, if you haven’t seen this film, you’ve either seen a trailer or heard about it online or through a friend. This movie was was very hyped up. At least for an A24 movie. If it was Blumhouse (The Conjuring, Annabelle, The Purge, Insidious, Ouija) you would have had your collective online and television experience raided with clips, trailers and ads. Not that I dislike Blumhouse films but they crank out major hype for almost all their films. A24 (One of my favorite horror production companies) did a masterful job of promoting this absolutely disturbing, terrifying and eerie film without cramming 20 second ad spots on every single Youtube video. The trailers alone were magnificent and had just the right amount of intriguing and unnerving imagery without spoiling the whole film. That tends to be a sad trend in horror but I will discuss that another time!
Check out this trailer and you’ll understand what I mean if you don’t already:
So, you back? You ok? How many fingers am I holding up?
Hereditary was on my list to watch fairly quickly but sadly I was unable to see it until fairly recently. I am somewhat glad I did not see it in theatres…because this movie is terrifying and I could barely handle it on my moderately sized TV.
I will do my best to not spoil the film because it truly is a masterpiece that needs to be experienced.
Here we go.
If you watched the trailer just now or even if you didn’t, it was punctuated with various positive quotes from various critics. Before the movie was even released in theaters critics were refusing to spoil any part of the movie. Of course, this was likely a marketing tactic but it proved to be effective. Still, as I sat down to watch it, I was doing my best to avoid the hype and just see if this film was good.
And it was. So much so that it took me until now to muster up the energy and courage to review it. It has been a while that a movie has affected me on this level. I was disturbed to the core. I tried to get a handle on it. I’m a horror fan right?
Nope.
The movie revolves around a family in a time of loss after the main character loses her grandmother. The family is understandably devastated but Charlie, the youngest child seems to be taking it a bit harder. As is Annie, naturally, since it was her mother. But Charlie’s connection, as hinted in the trailer, seems to be a different animal than just a young girl grieving her grandmother. Charlie is not just the horror stereotype of creepy little girl. She is genuinely unnerving and its a combination of her appearance and stellar acting. Quiet characters are difficult for even adults to pull off but this young actress has it down pat.
It may sound like a stereotype as well to say…things get weird. That’s virtually every horror movie. Things are more or less stable then an event occurs and it just goes downhill from there. But this film is unique. It does have a number of shocking scenes, scenes that stuck with me for almost weeks. Annie and Charlie exhibit different shades of increasingly odd and disturbing behavior. However that is simply one aspect. This movie, though tone, camera work and a fantastic score manages to make the viewer feel this form of dread that just slowly collects in the pit of the stomach. Some might call it a slow burn and that is one of the reasons I love A24 horror films but this film? Not necessarily. It might feel slower when compared to your run-of-the-mill slashers or the Blumhouse “demons and ghosts” films. But I never felt I could relax. Using all the tools in its arsenal, the film practically emblazoned one phrase into me: Something is very, VERY wrong. And as I watched it, I wondered if I really wanted to know what that something was.
Now let’s talk about Peter. Annie’s eldest son. I won’t go into detail but he doesn’t seem to be close to Annie’s mother and he seems distant from the rest of his family, especially his own mother. Despite his disconnection with his family, I felt like Peter was the most relatable out of all the characters. Not to say the other members of the family are cardboard or just creepy characters, in fact the father is quite normal and I sympathized with his growing concern about his family and what this loss seems to trigger within his loves ones. But back to Peter. While Charlie is just barely into adolescence, Peter is a full-fledged teenage boy. Even though I have heard some criticism for Peter’s portrayal I strongly disagree. The actor did a fantastic job in portraying a realistic and relatable member of the family gradually becomes more and more disturbed and terrified as things start to happen around him. While his father is concerned, Peter becomes is, for some reason, very unnerved by Charlie and his own mother. It is through Peter, in my opinion, the audience is given a connection to the family and that connection ignites the terror within us that is simultaneously present within Peter. We are now invested entirely and this allows another dimension of fear to seep into our viewing experience.
As I stated before, I am doing my best not to spoil this movie and actually it is easier than other films I have covered. Because even after I watched the film, I was delightfully confused as to the nature of what went on. Was what happened a metaphor? Is this film about mental illness in families (hence, the name “Hereditary?”), or is it a sinister and evil entity or force that is causing the turmoil we see on screen.
What is also impressive is this tactic of vagueness isn’t done in a frustrating way like other films. You know what I am talking about. Movies who are attempting to be deep by just leaving very important plot points “up to interpretation of the viewer.”
Now that there isn’t anything wrong with using a vague storyline but only if you know how to do it. Hereditary knows how to do it. I am tired of horror films or just films in general that use lazy storytelling as a way to make the movie seem “mysterious” and “open-ended.” Hereditary manages to do this masterfully which results in being able to rewatch the film to notice more details that might just help piece together what is at the dark roots of this family tree.
However, that task may prove less than easy since the film is so intensely disturbing.
I highly recommend this movie to anyone but especially if you like slow burns or if you seem to dislike slower movies. You will love this film because it is a perfect slow burn as well as an amazing advocate for that brand of horror films.
I would strongly advise not watching it alone though…
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