Review: Hereditary

Image courtesy of A24.

Ari Aster's debut, the horror movie "Hereditary," has been cited by many as the year's most terrifying film - and that it may very well be, albeit not for exactly the reasons you might think. This is a film that features several grueling scenes that feature gruesome images, but it's the picture's emotional violence that is even more unsettling. Aster has less interest in jump scares and things popping up out of the dark - although there are one or two instances of that, plus several heart rate-inducing moments of figures appearing in dark corners and a verbal tic from one of the characters that becomes increasingly sinister and caused me to nearly jump out of my seat at one point - than he does observing the terrors involved in grief and emotional distress.

In other words, this is one intense movie. From the opening shot of a treehouse through a window to the bonkers finale, "Hereditary" has an aura of dread that never lets up. At times, the picture plays as a Greek tragedy - and indeed, there is a classroom discussion on the topic during the course of the film, in which a group of teens discuss a Greek hero who failed to read the signs pointing toward his downfall and pondered whether it was more tragic to bring about one's own ruin through free will or be irrevocably doomed.

As the film opens, the Graham family is burying its matriarch, a woman whom we learn wasn't particularly warm and fuzzy and had a knack for private "rituals" and "secrets." Her daughter, Annie (Toni College in a staggering performance), has seemingly suffered through bouts of mental illness and we are told that during a sleepwalking incident some years before, she found herself standing over her two sleeping children, both of whom were doused in paint thinner, with a lit match.

Now, Annie - an artist who works with miniatures that come to act as microcosms of her family's predicament - wonders whether she is sad enough that her mother is dead. Her husband, Steve (Gabriel Byrne), is the stalwart type who likes to sweep family problems under the rug, while her eldest child, Peter (Alex Wolff), is a stoner high school student who harbors suspicion about his mother. Annie's tween daughter, the withdrawn and creepy Charlie (Milly Shapiro), was the only family member close to grandma, and she has a penchant for composing creepy drawings, cutting the heads of dead birds and keeping them in her pockets, sleeping alone in the backyard's treehouse and making clicking sounds with her mouth that become increasingly disturbing.

The film's first half plays more as a gloomy familial drama about grief and depression. Annie sneaks out at night, telling Steve that she is going to the movies, when she's actually taking part in a grief therapy group. It is there that she meets a woman named Joan (Ann Dowd, great as always), a self-proclaimed spiritualist who lost a son and grandson and claims that she can make contact with them, offering to do the same for Annie. Everyone other than Annie realizes that this is probably not a good idea.

Approximately 30 minutes into the movie, a second tragedy strikes the family, and it involves a particularly horrific sequence that culminates with an image that you likely won't soon be able to block from your mind. It is at this point that the film takes a turn toward the sinister. Annie discovers a book of incantations and a note from her late mother that is, well, not encouraging to say the least.

Although "Hereditary" wears some of its influences on its sleeve - "The Shining" in terms of a character being unable to protect their family from their own disintegrating mind-state, "Rosemary's Baby" in some obvious ways and Nicolas Roeg's creepy "Don't Look Now," which also involved a character unable to foresee his own fate and featured a young hooded girl - Aster's debut has a unique vibe of its own. And several scenes - most notably, an emotionally grueling one set at a dinner table - have more in common with the work of John Cassavetes or Mike Leigh than your typical horror movie.

But "Hereditary" is a horror movie and, yes, an eventual explanation - which also indicates how much free will the characters actually have while under the seeming observation of a sinister higher power - bring the genre elements dramatically out into the open in creepy fashion. At the same time, the picture focuses on the emotional horror of all-encompassing grief, and is expertly acted by all involved, especially Collette, whose range of emotions here is astounding, and Wolff, who gives one of the better slow burn performances of recent memory.

Although not for the feint of heart, "Hereditary" is a terrific showcase for the numerous talents involved. It deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as some of the 21st century's best horror films - "It Follows" and "28 Days Later." It's also an impressive debut for Aster, who with one feature film proves that his is a distinctive new cinematic voice. "Hereditary" is well worth seeing, that is, if you don't mind feeling as if you've been gut punched.