Review of Hereditary (2018) by Totallostcause — 10 Jun 2018

This movie was less of the slow burn suspense thriller-horror that is was advertised as and more or a meandering waste of time just waiting for a MST3K episode. About a quarter of the theater left before the movie ended and everyone else at the end just before the credits rolled. I waited through some of the credits as I was sure I had been Shyamalan'd again.

The story was lackluster with no characters being likable and only two being very sympathetic. Half of the movie I found myself hoping something awful would happen to most of the main cast just to get rid of them and move the plot along to something more interesting. There are several major plot holes and multiple instances of "horror movie logic". Several things that feel like they will be major plot points early in the film have no real relevance and are only there to set a creepy stage for the rest of the film. A few of the cast members have acting talent shine through during rare moments of this film but with the terrible writing it could not save this one.

The music and sound effects in this movie are frequently done hamfistedly. The music will go from low suspenseful rumble, to climactic Jaws is about to appear, to overbearing, to questioning if this will cause long term hearing damage; all with little regard to what is happening on screen. The special effects are all over the place with some being done well and others missing the mark completely. One of the stand outs is a point late in the film that should look like an apparition crawling quickly along the wall and instead looks like a panicked bug in a bed sheet being drug through the background on a wire. When this is part of the final climactic build up for your slow burn horror thriller and several members of the audience can't help but audibly laugh you have failed somewhere along the way.

The single redeeming part of this movie is the cinematography. This film has some amazing sweeps and pans that help to guide your focus through whatever the poor writing wants you to feel is important. It has wonderful use of depth of field. There are some beautiful and technically demanding shots including the opening longshot. This is not enough to suggest this movie in its entirety and but may mean shots from this could be used to study cinematography.

In the end I can not comprehend the hype on this one. I spent more than an hour after seeing this movie thinking and talking with the person that saw the movie with me. We desperately tried to find some less evident metaphor or greater meaning. Despite our best efforts this is just a poor horror movie with an amazing marketing team.