‘Hereditary’ Review: Virtuoso Filmmaking Meets Poop-Your-Pants Frights
When Hereditary first came out this year at Sundance, it immediately drew a ton buzz for it being scariest movies ever made, along with several other hyperbolic statements that immediately drew my cautious curiosity. After all, horror isn’t really my thing – especially nowadays given that most horror devolves into cheap gore and your standard jump scares. Nonetheless, I’m a big Toni Collette fan, so I watched the trailer….and immediately regretted watching it by myself. It was the type of masterfully constructed trailer that provides the perfect appetizer to what winds up being a frightening feast of emotional despair, grief, and terror.
But to reduce Ari Aster’s blood-curdling Hereditary to a mere “horror film” is to do it a massive injustice, because there are several moments that depict a broken family enduring incomprehensible traumas, which in turn led to moments of me literally holding back tears, and being blindsided by the pain family members can inflict on one another. The story begins when Annie Graham’s (Toni Collette) mother has passed away, and we quickly learn via Annie’s eulogy and her revelations at a grief support group that she and her mother had a very troubled relationship. Annie had completely removed her mother from the life of her first child, Peter (Alex Wolff), but allowed her to bond with her creepy-ass second-born child, Charlie (Milly Shapiro). Annie further reveals the troubling details surrounding the death of both her father and her brother, and her general ambivalence over her mother’s death. Annie’s poor husband, Steve (Gabriel Byrne), is warm and caring and steady-handed in the face of Annie’s seemingly endless list of reasons to hate life, in general.
Oh, did I mention that Annie creates miniature dollhouses and life scenes and uses that as a method to work through all the batshit depressing stuff that happens in her life? For a film that is already dabbling in jacked family dynamics and disturbing children, the whole dollhouse and human miniatures conceit takes the film to a whole new level of mind-fuckery.
Anyways, one night more-or-less normal teen Peter is forced by Annie to take his strange, pigeon-beheading, anti-social little sister Charlie to a party he plans to attend. When it turns out that Charlie threatens to be a cockblock for the ages at said party, Peter finds a way to be alone with his crush from class, leaving Charlie alone, and let’s just say… things go downhill very, very quickly for this family for the rest of the film. It’s rare to find a family with this much bad juju, but this wouldn’t be a proper horror film otherwise, would it?
As Annie works through all of this family trauma, she finds a friendly shoulder to cry on in Joan, played by the impeccable Ann Dowd. Joan suggests some… unorthodox ways for Annie to work through all of her grief, and let’s just say that if you thought nothing could get worse for this family, it most certainly does.
What makes Hereditary such a distinctive horror film is that it initially plays like a gut-wrenching family drama, and only after very meticulously establishing the dark and delicate emotional tapestry of the family does it eventually start to become a genuine horror film. Toni Collette is absolutely spellbinding, heartbreaking, and downright horrifying as this imperfect wife and mother, scarred by tragedy and navigating loss in ways that are at once understandable and unsettling as hell. Some of the most horrific moments come from when repressed emotions erupt amongst family members; at times, this film spares no opportunity to punch you in your emotional gut and make you wince at how terrible people can be to one another. But that only serves to make the explosive third act all the more emotionally resonant, while at the same time serving up enough scares to make you wish you’d worn your Depends.
While I could sing the praises of Toni Collette all freaking day, I have to also give major props to Alex Wolff, who plays an otherwise somewhat average teen but who takes a ton of the emotional brunt of his mother’s whackery. He plays Peter with a subdued, yet dark grace that you can relate to, and he has the difficult task of conveying some extremely complex emotional states through Aster’s adeptness with the super close-up. Gabriel Byrne doesn’t have nearly as much scenery-chewing material to work with, but the sanity and stability with which he plays Steve serves as a great counter to Collette’s more fiery, off-her-rocker Annie. And newcomer Milly Shapiro is absolutely perfect as the awkward yet totally freaking creeptastic daughter who is at once aware of what everyone thinks of her, but also seems to hold a deep knowledge of the world around her that nobody else does.
Technical accolades must be showered here, as well, from the darkly ambient music of Colin Stetson, to the patient yet tight editing of Lucian Johnston and Jennifer Lame, to the exquisitely moody cinematography of Pawel Pagorzelski – all who contributed to composing a distinct look, sound, and feel that lasts with you well beyond when the credits roll. First-time filmmaker Ari Aster has definitely succeeded in constructing a rare film that triggers the emotions, then gives you the finger and punches you in the face with some seriously messed up imagery that will have you talking about it for hours afterwards, and checking your closets when you get home.
Hereditary is by no means an easy film to watch, but if you’re the type of person that needs a bit more from a film beyond teenagers being murdered while drinking and banging in a log cabin over one deadly weekend, then I highly encourage you to go see this film. Just make sure to bring tissues. And maybe don’t wear white pants.
