Modern horror at its very best
I like to consider myself an aficionado of horror; it’s the movie genre I love above all others.
From slasher movies and creature features to found-footage and a seemingly never-ending series of sequels and remakes, I’ve been a horror fan ever since I sneakily stayed up late to watch Hammer flicks on the TV when I was a kid.
The beauty of the genre is that, just when you think it may be losing its touch and dying out among a stream of lazy retreads, along comes a film like Hereditary to restore your faith.
I can honestly say I’ve never seen a movie quite like this, which is a testament to the sterling work put in by writer-director Ari Aster – astonishingly making his feature film debut – and his virtuoso cast.
I want to give away as little of Hereditary’s plot as possible, but the main gist of the story is the impact a matriarch’s death has on her family; couple Annie (Toni Collette) and Steve (Gabriel Byrne) and their teenage children Peter (Alex Wolff ) and Charlie (Milly Shapiro).
What follows is an attack on your nerves, emotions and senses as Aster takes you on a terrifying two-hour journey to hell and back.
Hereditary has been labelled “this generation’s Exorcist” and while it shares a few similarities with the seminal 1973 flick, this really does deserve to stand on its own two feet as a beacon for modern horror.
Sometimes directors struggle to follow-up a sensational debut with a career to match – Donnie Darko’s Richard Kelly being a prime example – but if Hereditary is anything to go by then Aster is going to do some great things behind the camera.
Here he’s managed to shoot a menagerie of indelible images that will stay under your skin for days in a style so dizzying you feel like you’ve just spent an hour on a rollercoaster – blindfolded.
Annie is a miniaturist artist and Aster uses this to film a series of shots that make it appear as though the family are living in their very own dollhouse.
Speaking of the family, the film’s central quartet are masterfully performed by four stars of varying experience with each turn as strong as the other.
Collette physically and mentally transforms – at times within the same scene – with ease, Byrne is the best he’s been since The Usual Suspects, Wolff follows up My Friend Dahmer with another layered display and Shapiro, another making her cinematic bow, is more creepy and menacing than a night in an unlit haunted house surrounded by zombies.
Even when you start to think you have an inkling of where the film is going, Aster’s script pulls the rug out from underneath your feet – and slaps you in the face.
I’m always hesitant to label a movie an “instant classic” until giving it repeat viewings, but Hereditary is a masterful example of horror at its surprising, thoughtprovoking, petrifying best.