I’ve not been a fan of horror movies until recently. Most of the ones I had watched until months ago were of the “BLARRRGGGGGGHHHHHH” jump-scare every 5 minutes and gore everywhere to distract you from the fact there’s nothing truly scary in the movie. All of that is startling, it’ll make you jump, but it’s not going to stick with you. It won’t stay in your mind, forever haunting your nightmares the way creepy visuals like the twins from The Shining, Anthony Hopkins’ energy as Hannibal Lecter, or the nigh-indestructible monster of the xenomorph from Alien. It’s only recently have I begun truly seeking horror movies and looking forward to watching them, with creative visuals from the likes of The Conjuring, the social commentary mixed with weird brain-replacers of Get Out, atmospheric nightmares like The Blackcoat’s Daughter, grounded, realistic situations that could conceivably happen like Hush, horror movies have begun to win me over! That trend has continued with the truly creative, mind-blowing, terrifying directorial debut of Ari Aster’s Hereditary!
The basic story is that an elderly lady has just died, and her daughter, Annie (Toni Collette), and her family suffer the ramifications of the intended family legacy. The events that happen to this poor family over the course of the movie are truly horrifying. This movie tests the emotional capacities and sanities not only of the family in the movie, but the audience itself!
This is truly difficult to write about because saying anything beyond that feels like not only a spoiler, but a ruination of a truly great experience! All this from a first-time feature-length directorial effort! Never a bore anywhere, the commitment to “show-don’t-tell”. This movie has been on my mind for the past several days, haunting my nightmares! Toni Collette’s multi-layered performance, changing emotional states on a dime and making it look and feel natural, as if it was nothing! The atmosphere of the movie just keeps building and building, subtly, stealthily digging its claws into you while you’re distracted by whatever’s happening on screen! You find out only too late how the movie has grabbed hold of you and it will just not let go, before beating you with the beauty of its horrifying atmosphere, crawling under your skin, infecting the dark recesses of your mind, making you wonder, “is a part of my own family legacy hidden, just waiting to grab hold like it has to this family?” And the cherry on top, nary a jump scare to behold!
Count me a new fan of Ari Aster! Whatever he has planned in future, consider me intrigued! Though I do hope this movie makes its money back. It reminds me of some old-school horror like The Exorcist, a movie that if it were made today, no one would go watch it, as I’ve heard several people call movies like that, Blackcoat’s Daughter, and some other more creative horror, “boring”, and, “stupid”, and “lame”. I could have sworn I heard at least one person who left the theater say, “This was crap”. Not enough jump scares and sharp teeth and spooky beghouls for him I suppose.
Image from indiewire.com/
