Review of Hereditary (2018) by Misho K — 17 Jun 2018

Let me begin by stating that I saw this movie in the theater where audience response can affect one's opinion of a film. With that out of the way, Heredetary was a decent family drama/thriller. To say it falls under the title of a "horror" film would not do it justice; the film was not scary. One may claim with a degree of credibility that the film was suspenseful. It did have its "slow-burn" style of storytelling which, when done properly, builds anticipation of the end and results in a cathartic release of the suspense built. This film's resolution provided no sense of security. The first act of the movie gently foreshadows minor aspects of the ending such as the secretive nature of the Gandmother and Charlie's purpose as a host. The second act follows without any clues as to what can occur, instead taking on a much more family-oriented story. After the death of a main character, the family must learn to cope, and in this coping their dynamics are put to the test. Using the term "slowly" liberally, the family begins to quarrel and fall apart. The reason "slowly" stands in quotes is due to the dichotomous nature of the third act. The third act involves the mother discovering more spiritual and paranormal aspects of death involving her Grandmother and her now recently-deceased family member. Things pick up very quickly, and the climax of the film is reached in what feels like a matter of minutes. The ending sequence feels rushed and out of place as characters take a 180 degree turn from how they were represented the entire film and act against the nature that had been built up for them. Suddenly, things delve into supernatural CGI territory with barely any time for the viewers to catch up. For a slow burn, it does just that. However, the result of the burn is a short, confusing explosion that had us talking about the film afterwards. Often times this can be a good thing; however, when the confusion does not seem intentional and we're left thinking, "what did I just watch" without answers that can easily be received from the film, it falls short of its perceived effectiveness.

The movie, of course, had positives. The performance given by the mother was well done, and the father seemed like a very reasonable character as the actor had played him. For the most part, the children were done well and the way they were played made sense for children. The set design was put together nicely, and the sound did not feel terribley designed. However, the perfomances did coerce quite a lot of laughter from the audience due to the over-the-top hysterics exhibited by some scenes. The movie did not feel narratively-concrete in which I mean that the movie did not feel consistent with where it wanted to go. The supernatural aspects of the film, occuring at the end, come out of the left field with no regard to the family-oriented storyline that dominated the preceeding hour and a half. There were some shots that left the viewers in suspense, but not a soul was left shaking in their seats from the film. Too many loose ends and unexplored plot devices were left unattended to by the end of the film, and questions were raised about where they were.

I love slow-burn films. Films of great length excite me, and I love the anticipation that gets built and built up before culminating in whatever reveal or climax. Those who say this movie is similar to the suspenseful nature of The Shining compare too readily; The Shining exemplifies in the family-drama/thriller aspect and ties the horror in with a feeling of dread over just what lengths will Jack's mind go in its downward spiral. We see all this unfold in Kubrick's film, and have an understanding of where it may lead and why it may lead there. With Hereditary, we have none of that. Things happen, and things fall apart without any real cause. It's unfortunate that the film is hyped up so much as that can leave viewers disatisfied. It was marketed as a horror, but I was left thinking that it was just plain horrible. All in all, I'm excited for horror movies that try to break the current-standing mold for horror, but this movie breaks the mold by following tired tropes of old psychological thrillers without any of the power behind the scenes formed from cohesive plot structures and relatable characters.