Anyone who reads my movie reviews probably knows that I have an affinity towards A24 Films. They produce consistently good films. Hereditary seems to be another successful film on the heels of Ladybird, The Florida Project, Lean on Pete and many others that I have not reviewed on Steemit. The list is long and impressive. They seem to be film-makers who love film. Not as a business, but as an art form. It shows.
Charlie (Milly Shapiro) is an awkward thirteen-year-old girl. She has an odd obsession with the macabre. She draws people grotesquely and builds strange characters from scrap materials. With the passing of her grandmother, things in Charlie's house begin going off the rails. Her mother Annie (Toni Collette) has a strained relationship with both Charlie and her brother, Peter (Alex Wolff). We start to wonder if Annie doesn't have some deep-rooted psychological issues, throwing everything we are witnessing into a state of imbalance. Her husband, Steve (Gabriel Byne) seems to have little patience or compassion, creating a stilted atmosphere in the home. When a second death occurs, events take a strange, dark turn.
Hereditary is one of those stories that takes you through some odd turns. As soon as you think you are figuring things out, the script throws a tidbit of backstory at you to keep you off balance. There is an incident rather early in the film that was wholly unexpected. Without knowing what the plot was (and without revealing it), the incident changed the entire direction of the film, creating a slow but strange tension. The characters also had a tension caused by distrust within the household that further created diversion and suspense. For a deliberately paced (slow-ish) story, this film managed to create an incredible tension. Much of it is delivered visually, which A24 seems adept at. For a film that feels slow and runs more than two hours, it didn't feel excessively long. I'm not sure how they pulled that off, but they did. I will chalk it up to a strong plot and sharp editing.
Milly Shapiro is a relative newcomer. She had a tough role as an unattractive weirdo. That must be tough on the psyche of a young teen. But she did a great job of taking the audience out of our comfort zone. Toni Collette has been around forever. While I am not necessarily a "fan," she is a solid actress. Her role was pivotal and she handled it with the veteran experience one would expect. She was great. We don't see much Byrne, but he was solid. I'm still trying to decide what I thought of Wolff. Overall, he did a great job. There were a couple of scenes that I didn't really like him in. I'm not sure what it was, but I wasn't completely sold. At other times, he was exceptional. Overall, the cast helped sell the disturbing tension that the plot was intended to convey. I was off balance most of the film.
Hereditary received an R rating from the MPAA. The rating is based primarily on the gore factor. There is some disturbing imagery. The violence easily landed this on in the R category. Aside from that, there are a few scenes of marijuana use, some dimly lit graphic nudity near the end of the film and strong language. This film is disturbing on different levels. It will undoubtedly cause nightmares in children prone to them. I would suggest a teen audience or older. The film has a run time of two hours, seven minutes.
Hereditary is a different type of horror/suspense film. Not in the sense that it is original, but the underlying plot goes a direction I was not expecting. I may not have gone to see this film had I known the full plot line. Having said that, I am not disappointed I went. The film was executed brilliantly. The acting, cinematography, editing, suspense, characters...it all worked together to make a visually stimulating film. The camera trails at times to create suspense, while lurking voyeuristacally at other times. I'm not as sold on this film as IMDb, which has it at an 8.2 currently. I think some fan excitement may have pushed it up a bit. It will probably settle somewhere in the 7s, which is where I am. A solid horror film worth seeing at the theater. 7.5/10.
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