2018 looked as if it was doomed to the same Hollywood tropes that plague the box office with reboots of classic movies such as “Predator” and “Halloween” or new instalments of atrocious, worn out movies like “The Purge” and “Insidious” franchises. One movie shown through the manure filled lenses of Hollywood like a diamond in the rough, “Hereditary” released on June 8, 2018 written and directed by Ari Aster and starring Toni Collette, Milly Shapiro, Alex Wolff, and Gabriel Bryen, wowed audiences and critics alike with its mind bending plot and stunning visuals.
“Hereditary,” focuses on a family of four, whos secretive, estranged and recently united grandmother dies, leaving the family with many unanswered questions and unresolved grudges formed throughout her mysterious life. Not only does the grandmothers death cause a resurfacing of her daughters long buried feelings of contempt and guilt over her tragic and neglected life, the very grievances the daughter has adopted from her mother have been passed on to her kids.
The death of the grandmother causes a resurgence of hatred within the household creating a feeling of rot and domination within the characters and their relationships which is accompanied if not orchestrated by a malevolent, supernatural presence that leeches off the family’s history and individual weakness. This all happens as the viewer watches through a looking glass into a doll house of damnation on a platform of hatred and horror created by the charters and transferred to the viewer.
“Hereditary” is a true horror film! It is a film that plays off of every primal sense in the human body by utilizing stunning, neck snapping, relatable, and innovative ceinamatogaviy acting, script and audio that turns ones blood frigid and spine stone cold.
This movie is the human experience of HORROR incarnate and a film that encompases what it means as an animal to feel alive and to KNOW fear without risk or consequence.
To watch this film is not like watching any other movie such as “Saw” that may make your stomach curdle or to watch “Insidious” and laugh after an abrupt unexpected appearance of an rotating old women on the screen. This film is one that should not be watched alone but with friends as a sobering experience into how easily toyed with our minds and sense of security are. It is an exercise in viewing film at its finest and experiencing fear in into true form.
It gives the viewer a rush not like that of a man made roller coaster with the of assurances of seatbelts. It is a ride with no safety harness or workers readily waiting to press the stop button. It is a roller coaster with no emergency break into your psyche that brings out in the organ of the mind a cocktail of chemicals and never before felt emotions of ecstasy and horor.
This film tapps into the most primitive and never before accessed parts of our mind. It gives the viewer an opportunity without the risk of brain damage or broken bones to feel the rush of the fluidity of fear in the mind and an augmented sense of attack and animosity on all fronts of your senses by an omnipotent predator that is stalking you and lurks all around you or even from within you.
If you wish to step away safely into a brilliant piece of cinema in all senses of the title, and enter a state of awe and augmentation with your friends or are alone and in a state of idiocy then “Hereditary” should be somewhere amongst your consideration of films to dive into and dissect.
