Kelley Reviews: Hereditary
Ok so. This movie is probably the scariest movie I have ever seen. Before this movie, the scariest movie I had ever seen was the Witch so surprise surprise that the creators of that movie also did this one. It’s not that it has a lot of jump scares or anything but there was just something about it that disturbed me to my core and something heavy about it that sat with me long after I had left the theater. I even had to call up my best friend on my drive home because I didn’t want to be alone in my car in the darkness of the drive!
In my last blog, my review of Upgrade, I gave a short synopsis for those of you who hadn’t seen the movie. The problem here is that the trailer is a bit of a misdirection so giving a true synopsis would be a spoiler. What I will say to those of you who haven’t seen this movie yet is that there are some shocking moments paired with a slow but intense build that ends with what can only be described as a terrifying shit show. I will say, if you go to this movie, pay attention to the shadows, to the corners of the screen and to the backgrounds. There are sometimes things there and I’m positive I missed a bunch of them because I only started to notice them at the end. For those of you who love scary movies, this is one of the good ones. To me, a scary movie that disturbs me this much is what the genre’s goal is all about. To make you scared not just because things are jumping out and shocking you, but because it touches on our deepest fears as human beings and reminds us of them in the safe environment of a movie theater. Scary movies remind us of our humanity and, at times, give us one hell of an adrenaline rush.
And now let’s get to the review.
If the giant picture wasn’t clue enough, this is where the SPOILERS start!
WHAT WORKED
Let’s talk about those actors! Honestly, the acting in this movie was incredible! I always appreciate a well-acted scary movie and this one outdid itself with the casting. I didn’t have a problem with a single one of the main characters. Toni Collette did an AMAZING job with her character Annie. Annie goes through so much shit and has been through so much shit already and Toni does an excellent job of portraying this character’s journey—a journey that is tinged with disaster after disaster and ends in an all-out loss of sanity. I also loved Alex Wolff’s performance comes at a close second. Here’s a plot twist: so the trailer leads you to think that the family’s young daughter, Charlie, is the main focus of the movie but it’s actually Alex’s character, Peter, who holds the focus of most of the movie. So much happens to Peter and I think Alex was perfectly cast in this role because he made this character and he was one of the factor’s that made this movie so good. And then of course there is Charlie herself, played by Milly Shapiro who, I am so happy to report, looks so much cuter and nicer and less creepy on her IMDB than she does in that movie. She did an excellent job playing the family’s disturbed daughter and her look all the difference. Also, from a short clip of an interview I say about her, she is a huge horror movie fan and has seen many of them!
The tension. This has been mentioned in a few other reviews but dang this movie was filled with tension! Usually in a scary movie, when a scene goes quiet, that means that a jump scare is imminent, but that moment often never came in Hereditary. This meant that there were no jump scares to ease the tension so the tension just stayed and continued to ramp up and up as the movie went on.
The cinematography. Now I don’t know that many technical things about the making of movies, but I do know that the way Hereditary was shot and edited showed that someone with master level skills much have worked on it. Some highlights include: the shots that parallel Annie’s miniature model art. Some of the scenes are shot in such a way that they almost look like they could also just be scenes from the doll houses Annie creates. Also those shots of the house when it pops from day to night as if someone has just flicked off the light—that was a really cool affect.
The idea for the story itself really worked for me, and by “worked for me” I mean deeply disturbed on some basic human level. Now, I will say this, being Catholic, the demonic aspect of this film terrified me! As you go on in this movie it is slowly revealed that the dead grandmother was a part of some demonic cult and I just don’t mess with that stuff. Nope nope nope. Especially at the very end when they were having their ritual and everything, ugh I just wanted to douse myself in holy water and call it a night. I had to call my best friend on the drive home because I didn’t want to be alone in the dark and then I had to watch the bachelorette before bed so soothe my now disturbed mind.
WHAT DIDN’T WORK
So honestly, not much about this movie did not work for me (double negative—I know I’m sorry). But seriously! The only thing I will say that really stuck out to me was the way the people at the end, the mom included, floated in the air. I’m fine I guess with the floating people aspect because it did lead to some truly scary moments in the film (for example when the mom is kneeling and bashing her head against the entrance to the attic in the ceiling) but for the most part it sort of took away from the horrible real-ness of the movie. I had the same complaint about the Witch as well. I don’t know how they could ground that element in reality, maybe it’s the fact that its completely silent and the effect feels fake? Again, I don’t know the solution to this other than just taking it out altogether.
Overall I would say this movie was absolutely AMAZING and that I never want to see it again. It did it’s job—it reminded me of my humanity and it made me feel deeply intense emotions and that’s really all anyone could ask for from a movie.
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