Hereditary

THE horror flick, helmed by first-time feature film director Ari Aster, opens with miniature artist Annie (Toni Collette) whose mother Ellen had just died. Annie’s daughter Charlie (Milly Shapiro) is particularly affected by the loss. As the family tries to pick up the pieces and move forward, they encounter some strange hauntings.

Annie begins to see Ellen’s apparition in the house. As the film progresses, viewers learn that Ellen had been hiding things from the family when she was alive. With many horror flicks, the evil force is apparent right from the get-go, whether it’s a haunted house or a possessed doll or person, and the person(s) affected by it tries to get rid of it. Hereditary has a lot more originality in this sense, where its characters don’t start out encountering any evil force. Instead, the film focuses on the relationship among the family members and the issues they need to iron out.

As such, with no demons to slay, you don’t quite know where the film is going (and the typical scare tactics are at a minimum here), which can be frustrating for viewers.

When it eventually arrives at where the film intended to go, Hereditary succeeds in delivering the scares for sure. These moments are quite disturbing and difficult to watch, to be honest. Simply put, the film is not for the faint-hearted. Hereditary is so different from any of the horror flicks I’ve seen, which says a lot about the film’s originality. At the same time, this out-ofthe-ordinary quality may not be everyone’s cup of tea. – Kenneth Chaw