Review of Hereditary (2018) by Omar L — 20 Jun 2018

"Hereditary" looks like a great piece that goes into the minds of those who fear that mental illness is an affliction that can be passed down from one generation to the next. The guilt and shame that one might carry is explored in this movie, with Toni Collette doing a fantastic job expressing all the snark, mania, self-loathing, and fear that might come from a person with a mental disorder like DID or even BPD.

But the last part of the third act threatens to undo all of the psychological tension by leaving behind the questioning of reality and settling into a tense, yet mundane explanation of the events one would generally find in such a thriller. Within the context of the movie, it all makes sense, and earlier shots and lines gain more impact; however, there are still many underlying questions that never get answered. Many questions can be answered with "because demons," but the biggest question I had was what exactly Annie (Collette) was doing with regards to her job as a miniature model-builder: why was she contracted to reproduce events from her life?

The answers provided satisfied me, but only in the simplest way possible. It's a shame that the story chose to go the way it did, because it could have been more.