An experiment into the hidden depths of terror.
It’s pretty rare when a horror classic hopeful, the debut from a burgeoning writer/director, can blatantly and subtly riff on a collection of well-known titles and still create one of the most talked about genre entries of some time. Yet that is exactly the case with the heavily-buzzed Hereditary. Taking cues from Poltergeist, Burnt Offerings, Rosemary’s Baby and The Amityville Horror, among many others, Ari Aster’s debut feature tips its hat to all of the aforementioned entries, while still managing to retain a voice that’s uniquely its own. The result is a horror movie keyed into elements of pure, proven terror with a story that manages to touch on primal human darkness.
The main figure of Hereditary is Annie (Toni Collette), an upper middle-class housewife who is also a celebrated maker of dollhouse miniatures. The film opens with Annie and her family- lawyer husband Steve (Gabriel Byrne), son Peter (Alex Wolff) and daughter Charlie (Milly Shapiro)- getting ready for the funeral of Annie’s mother, with whom she shared a complicated relationship with. In the days following the service, Annie finds strange changes in Charlie’s behavior, leading to a horrific accident and a number of dark occurrences which threaten to tear the family apart.
Plenty has been written about the horrors of Hereditary, visceral and otherwise. While the threat of overhype is certainly there, Aster has managed to fashion a horror film that isn’t short on the sort of blood-curdling moments which ooze tension, delivering on the promise of a truly frightening experience. Hereditary is thankfully free of tired gimmicks such as creaking doors and noisy sliding cabinets most films use in desperate attempts to make their audiences jump. Instead, it’s a mix of the supernatural and old-fashioned dread which gives Hereditary pure soul as a horror film. Moments featuring apparitions, horrific events the audience doesn’t see, a third act in which all bets are off, and the lingering presence of a deceased family member, work in tandem to ensure Hereditary earns its name as a horror film. Adding its own brand of unease is the film’s production design, which features sets draped in rich and vivid colors which act in sharp contrast to the darkness of the movie’s story and give of a vibe that’s totally macabre.
Every horror film is about something real at the end of the day, no matter how fantastic its trappings may come across as. The same is true of Hereditary as its carefully woven tapestry of terror instantly gives way to a tale of dark familial complexity. It isn’t long into the film before we realize that Annie has had a very complicated upbringing. As a child she had to endure her mother’s lack of affection and eventual disdain following the death of her brother. When she got married and had children of her own, her mother’s love towards them caused Annie to be somewhat absent as a parent. Hereditary makes good use of these fractured dynamics by using them to explore those families who never asked to be families as well as the inherent love and deep-seeded resentment they hold for one another. The strongest of these moments, a riveting scene between Annie and Peter, is full of the kind of shocking revelations that feels both incredibly raw and profoundly human all at once.
Hereditary is no one’s show but Collette’s and this is appropriate since the actress has rarely been given a character this full to play in her incredibly varied career. Annie is one of the screen’s most dynamic heroines, full of conflict to no end. Collette seems to have loved investigating her as she plays her with truth, respect and empathy no matter what the character is faced with or what action she takes. If there’s anyone who can match her in the film, performance-wise, it’s Wolff. While he’s done solid work in other projects (most recently, the underrated drama The House of Tomorrow), here he breathtakingly exudes deep pain and torment in a mostly dialogue-free role. The rest of the cast has their moments, including Ann Dowd as Annie’s support group friend and especially Shapiro, whose work here ranks right up with the likes of Heather O’Rourke in terms of child horror performances. Only Byrne seems wasted in what essentially comes off as a “walker” role next to Collette’s, yet still remains a welcome presence.
Just prior to the press screening for Hereditary, critics were sent a newsletter featuring a tribute to Collette and her eclectic career. The move confirmed the rumors surrounding the supposed awards campaign A24 was supposedly mounting for the actress and their hopes to see her work in the film take her all the way to the stage on Oscar night. On a greater level, the campaign signifies the newfound importance and respect that the horror genre has been receiving as one of the premier storytelling expressions of cinema. With it’s deeply involving story and creative approach to horror, Hereditary will almost certainly join the ranks of Psycho, The Exorcist, The Silence of the Lambs and even last year’s Get Out as films once perceived as straight genre entries that have gone on to become horror masterpieces revered for their telling exploration of human darkness.
