In Theaters Now
Directed by: Ari Aster
Starring: Toni Collette, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro, Ann Dowd, Gabriel Byrne
**************SPOILERS IN REVIEW*******************
There are certain ways that will they/won’t they or did it/didn’t it stories can succeed. Unfortunately I’m not sure what those ways are, but I know it doesn’t have to do with continuity. The Sixth Sense isn’t great because you never see anybody but Haley Joel Osment talking to Bruce Willis. That just makes it neat upon a re-watch. Ari Aster’s debut film doesn’t bother with that “neat” factor, and even when you are told, pretty much point-blank, what is going on, you still question it. That is why Hereditary succeeds.
Hereditary tells the story of a family. A mother (Annie, Toni Collette) who works as an artist building and creating miniatures, a father (Steve, Gabriel Byrne), a teenage stoner son (Peter, Alex Wolff) and a 13-year-old daughter (Charlie, Milly Shapiro). Annie’s mother has recently passed away, the film opens up with an original idea, a text of her obituary. Annie as well as her mother, father, and deceased sibling all suffer from some form of mental illness. There are strong hints that her children suffer this same fate. It’s never explicit what they suffer from, but it’s some form of D.I.D., bipolar disorder, or dementia. So when the sinister story comes into play, you don’t know, for most of the film, weather or not it’s something seen as a viewer or seen through the eyes of one of the characters.
Things are escalated quickly when Charlie passes away in what is probably the most violent way I’ve seen a 13-year-old die in a movie. Her brother blames himself (and his mother) and both, to some extent, are indeed to blame. Then again, there is an odd symbol seen at the scene of the death (just before Charlie’s passing) that makes you think it’s possible that there are external forces at work.
Ann Dowd plays Joan. If that sentence alone doesn’t freak you out you should watch some more of Ann Dowd’s work. Joan is a really fun character. She meets up with Annie outside of a support group for people who have recently lost loved ones. Things quickly escalate when Joan shows Annie how she can connect with the other side. Her manic attitude toward talking to her deceased grandson is maybe the most uncomfortable I felt during the viewing. It’s during the climax of the film where you see Joan yelling at Peter and realize that you haven’t seen Joan talk to anybody besides Annie this whole time. Casting even more doubt on the evil at play.
The standout of the film is Toni Collette. The character of Annie has to show a range of emotion as wide as I can recall in recent memory, and plays a mentally unstable person as well as Jack Nicholson in pre-axe The Shining.
First time writer/director Ari Aster impresses with story, plot, and direction skills. The use of light is nothing short of jaw-dropping at times and the games he plays with imagery are really fun. You aren’t sure if you are in the Utah residence (think the Overlook if it only could sleep 5 people) of the family or in a 2 square foot model of a hospital. It’s jarring just to see someone walk into a room at times.
The film ends with evil winning. I’m not going to spoil details. It wouldn’t add to this review and that is a lot of the fun (that feels gross) in Hereditary. But I will say this. You are told, without a doubt, that the super natural evil you have been learning about the entire film is real. And you STILL don’t know it to be true. The film plays with mental illness in a very aggressive and impressing way. And while I’m not sure I would recommend this to anybody, it definitely deserves to be seen by horror fans and art film fams alike.
Is it Watchlist-Worthy? Yes – but don’t yell at me after…