6/11/18 - Hereditary (2018) - 6/10

There is certainly an intensity that seeps its way into the cracks of the film and bleeds into the squishy bits of yourself. It is filled with a creepy strangeness and disorienting detachment. I loved the layered “world within a world” design, the gliding haunted camera work, and the overall strong acting & character structure. Unfortunately, though a strong initial effort by Ari Aster , I was nowhere near scared at any time and it could hardly muster beyond a “that is slightly discomforting”. I think I liked the film, but I was not awed, wowed, or bewitched.

The whole cast is consistently odd and incongruous, lead by the fluctuatingly manic & emotionless Toni Collette. Her and much of her family’s journey is one of terror and psychological pain, less from the otherworldly but from the all-too-human horror of family. Each character feels confined and stunted, battling the small walls of the fake rooms they are stuck in, never able to escape. Their small dwellings, of the main characters making, that imprison them but that they are constantly observing from the outside, was a tremendous metaphor for their psychological pain and mental health issues. Disquieting and ambiguous, but identifiable at the same time. The emotional hook and its pervasiveness in the film’s construction is what works the best.

Such an emotive foundation is necessary, because the film is fairly slow. At least half the film ambles by before the intensity truly ramps up, similar to a masterpiece like Audition. I could certainly see a chunk of audiences finding it overly subdued. Unlike an Audition though, when it does embrace its more horrifically compelling elements is when it began to waiver for me. Toward the end, some of the more outlandish elements were...too much. Perhaps even laughable. There is a weirdness and I truly appreciate that they rarely resorted to jump scares,  I just personally wish that the eerie and eidolic pushed me to my edge or shook me, rather than intrigue me to ponder the mysteries.

Hereditary is a solid film, a strong feature film debut, but it is no horror masterpiece. Overly haled and unable to survive the hype, Hereditary is an imbalanced effort in every sense of the term. Displaying the teeter-totter psychological imbalance while elucidating little and muddying the waters with finely crafted creep but underdeveloped guttural horror. It is a mental dance with the fine lines between normalcy and the beyond, both psychologically and spiritually.