Hereditary

I've never put much stock in awards like the Oscars or whatever. The right people are rarely recognised and there's always an air of snobbery around the whole thing. Certain genres like sci-fi, fantasy and especially horror always tend to be ignored despite some of their films containing acting and directing as good as you'll find anywhere else. Hereditary contains a performance from Toni Collette that I know won't be topped this year and I'd lay money on her not being recognised for it. It stinks.

Anyway. Hereditary is excellent. For me it has lived up to the hype around it. A rare and surprising occurrence.

After burying the unlikeable and estranged matriarch of her family, Annie is troubled by her feelings towards her mother and her apparent lack of grief over her passing. Then the unspeakable happens and her whole family is drawn into her torment and attempts to find respite only make things far far worse.

I want to say I loved this but it's not a film to love. It is excellent tough. It's both a study of grief and family dysfunction that's genuinely disturbing and a dread filled piece of work that frightened the life out of me. It's a suffocating watch, one that will draw you in so hard that you'll nearly forget you are sitting in a cinema with other people. It's a horror film through and through but it's the film's portrayal of grief that will stick with you rather than the supernatural elements of the story. It's almost too raw. The thoughts that go through your head, the need to blame, the pain of keeping things to yourself and then the inevitable overshare when the walls fall down. It makes for tough watching and a dinner table talk halfway through is as horrifying as anything I've seen lately.

That's not to say the horror aspects of the story don't work. They do in spades. The sense of something off slowly turning into full blown dread and then into full on scare mode all happens so smoothly you don't even notice it. An odd smile at a funeral, a growling dog, a grin from a wardrobe, fingers bent at unnatural angles.......then......bloody chaos. This is a film that wears it's influences on its sleeve proudly. A touch of Amityville Horror here, Rosemary's Baby there, a splash of The Wicker man and maybe a dab of The Exorcist. It doesn't rip them off though, it just uses a whiff of them to bind things together. And yes like many a horror film it does all get rather silly near the end but it commits to its story and sees it through to its ultimate conclusion. No rug pulling moments here, no shitty cheap endings. Just pure and utter horror. 

It's cleverly written and shot too. I find it hard to fathom this is writer/director Ari Aster's first full length feature. It feels like the work of an old pro. Annie is a model and diorama maker and in certain sequences we get the feeling that the characters we are watching are models in a full scale diorama, pawns to be moved around by forces bigger than them. A moment telegraphed early in the film pays off in a way you'd never ever expect and leads to a sequence that will legitimately traumatise you. Things happen in the corner of screen that barely register and leave you wondering did you see anything at all. Little moments that make no sense throughout the film come crashing together and one big moment is revealed in a sequence that will have you putting things together in your head as much as the onscreen protagonists. People may roll their eyes at later events but it all fits the film's internal logic. Every thing has been laid out for us if we are prepared to pay full attention.

4 brilliantly intense performances draw everything together. Toni Collette as mother Annie has never been better onscreen. My word she wrings herself dry in this. Millie Shapiro as daughter Charlie is a haunting, unsettling presence and makes a pretty amazing debut. Alex Wolff as Peter gets put through the wringer too and acquits himself proudly especially as the film progresses. Gabriel Byrne as father Steve puts in another trademark solid and stoic performance as a man struggling to keep things together. Steve is the proxy audience character for us watching and plays the part of the skeptical unbeliever to a tee. Plus he gets to keep his own accent. Bonus.

I've seen this described as an art horror and I'm kind of baffled by that. It's a description that feels slightly pretentious and may put a potential audience off. It's a slowburn watch but it's never ever boring. If you are willing to let the story wash over you and not scoff at it's more outlandish aspects you're in for a genuine experience in terror. Highly recommended.