Hereditary - 2018 Horror Film

I just watched this. My shortest review ever: "Boring." How can horror be so boring? Of course after 50 minutes of NOTHING... I gave up on it. I will finish it, but BORING start. Almost annoyingly so. And it wasn't even building in all that time. A roller coaster of up and downs of no importance.

 

Annie hovering in a corner of the ceiling while her son slept...
Good movie.
Not everyone loves it, obviously. To each their own.

 

I thought it was a fascinating psychological thriller.

 

Same here. I'm looking forward to seeing it again.

 

By the time I though to myself that I was bored, there were only a few minutes left fortunately. Wasn't scary in the slightest. Wouldn't even compare it to 'The Exorcist', 'It Follows' or 'Get Out'. Don't mind slow build ups, just has to be interesting. Too much signposting. I watch a lot of horror and this won't be getting watched again. Glad I didn't pay for it. Watched 'Unfriended' last week. Knew it'd be crap but entertaining crap and it was. Held my attention more than this.

 

I suppose it comes down to expectations. This was a psychological thriller with supernatural elements and some creepy scenes vs. being a horror film.

 

If you're going to promote a film as the next big thing, it helps if it is. All I expected was to be entertained.

 

I wouldn’t disagree and that’s part of the problem with marketing.

 

Audience reaction was very poor when I saw it in the theater. There was a lot of laughing during neutral scenes and towards the end of the film. A few people appeared to be bored and left early. I went to see it with my gal and a couple friends and unfortunately I was the only one in my group who liked the movie. Responses I heard when we were walking out was along the lines of "that wasn't scary at all," "what a dumb movie," "the ending was a joke," etc.

 

I think the problem with this movie was its marketing and the expectations set forth. It really was a family/psychological drama with horror elements.

Those expecting jump scares. CGI monsters, excessive blood and gore, etc would be disappointed. Those who like slowburn horror films might enjoy it more. I know I like it a lot, and its imagery stayed with me for a while after viewing the film.

 

I really liked the slow simmer at the start of the movie but felt it boiled over too much at the end and became a more standard modern horror movie of things jittering along at fast pace to give you a jolt.

 

Mike is right. There is a lot of disturbing imagery in this film, in that respect I found it extremely creepy. Obviously it reminds me of Rosemary's Baby, but the cinematography reminds me of Suspiria in that it is a fantastic looking film. The acting was pretty good too. The more I think about the story, the better it gets unlike a quiet place, which I also watched on Satuday, which is the opposite. This should stand up to multiple viewings.

My only criticism is that the film is too long. I am not sure what I would cut, but cuts could be made somewhere between when the candle is lit and the end.

 

I saw it last weekend. Though I was fairly captivated during the viewing (only a couple of parts took me out of it), when it was over it was easy to pick apart.

I don't want films to so easily allow me to pick all of its nits. But, for a mainstream horror film it was a cut above the rest. Really, it just used too many typical tropes.

 

My review:

A woman (Toni Collette) and her family are confronted with supernatural activity after her occultist mother dies.

This film suffers from the same problem as a lot of weird movies. It can construct an interesting journey when it doesn't have to explain or justify its weird scenes but eventually the climax looms up ahead. It's at this point that many weird movies become unstuck because the makers have no overall idea about what's going on and what it's all about. So often after an interesting journey most weird film falls apart towards the climax because the makers can't explain and justify the story they've been telling with an actual overall end point. They end up with a random climax that has nothing much to do with the previous scenes and the weird stuff we've been seeing prior to it is not partially explained or brought into a coherent framework. In other words: the lack of a proper resolution reveals that all the scenes leading up to it where mostly random cool ideas and images with little to nothing in terms of meaning, intellectual thought or narrative purpose underpinning them. The narrative vagueness and the incoherence of thought is often mistaken for profundity by more pretentious viewers.

Hereditary definitely falls into this trap. Almost every scene in this film could be replaced with other spooky activities. Why does X, Y or Z happen? There is no actual strong narrative that demands these particular things need to happen. Pretty much every scene and weird moment could be replaced with other things and the overall story would still make just as much sense. There is no structure to the story that demands any of this to happen. The 'story' is just a string of random spooky or cool scenes all leading up to nothing. The climax is almost comically disconnected to the rest of the story. They probably dropped some foreshadowing into the earlier scenes, but that still doesn't mean the ending isn't a random event that's been plucked out of thin air. On a fundamental level the film is bollocks, but here's the thing, the journey is interesting. The random weird events are creepy and the controlled style of the film creates an eerie atmosphere.

The comparisons to The Exorcist (1973) make sense and are not too big a stretch. They are both classy horror films with children behaving badly in upper class American households (there's even a jump out a window moment) and they both use more sophisticated methods to unnerve an audience than most horror films. If then had managed to stick the ending, and make it convince as a proper joined up story, then this could have been up there with The Exorcist. It's certainly a superior horror film. I jumped a few times and I got Goosebumps from the first apparition. There is a lot to like about this.

Toni Collette has been acclaimed for her performance. It's a role that could have been performed very badly so the film was lucky to have her.

There is a lot to like about this film but the script is clearly making it up as it goes along with all the intellectual rigor of a MTV music video. This could have been a horror classic but in my opinion it misses the mark by a wide margin due to the shallow script that is made up of random cool scenes and images rather than a real story. The sophisticated, polished production values can't hide that the 'story' is random nonsense. Nothing that happens has any real inherent dramatic purpose beyond creating a spooky scene. As a story it's a bit of a random meaningless mess hidden behind clean, classy production values.

The writer-director has mention Peter Greenaway in a few interviews. He is probably a much more significant influence than most people realise. If 80s Peter Greenaway ever made a haunted house movie with his arty excesses trimmed back then it would probably resemble this film.

Good

 

I've started this film again, and this is exactly the way I still see it "a string of random spooky scenes." I mean, you can guess the plot a mile away with the grandmother and her promise of "it will be worth it" -- and I'm still not more than halfway with this film -- but it just drags. Films are supposed to set up some kind of kinetic series of events, and as Somewhat Damaged said (NIN rules!) this film sure doesn't bother to "get things going" any time fast. I'm also not sure how I feel about the use of Millie Shapiro in this film, I kind of feel like she was picked for her "unusual" look and that it might be a bit cruel. The first 30 seconds of the film, however, with the dollhouse were great. But the head on the side of the road, which was inexplicably edited in after what seems like a long time had passed since the accident, really had me wondering who was crafting this film. I'll finish it today just to see this ending they tacked on. Let's see ... dollhouses. That SHOULD be used in the climax, at least then something was paid off.

 

Unsane was way creepier and scarier than this film. And I don't see it as a psychological film at all because the uninteresting characters are all so one-note, there's no room for change or transformation. If you start off weird ..... there ain't no place to go.

 

well said!

i felt really let down by the climax and ending, and i was underwhelmed by the heavily stylish set pieces that really didn't lead to anything. the guy who plays the son does deserve accolades for his performance in what was one of the most harrowing scenes i've seen in years (NOT the ending).

 

Just finished it. Junk.

Horrible ending. A cheap wrap-up that gave little satisfaction and only made sense to it's own silly conceits. The last hour finally picked up in a typical "House on Haunted Hill" scare fashion -- flies and blood squirting headless bodies -- erasing any "intelligence" that might have been there in the first draggy half. Then they tried to introduce an uninspired "plot" at the ninth hour. And what was mysterious suddenly became cliche and trite: Hail Satan! Son was good, agreed. Mother was overwrought for too long and got wearying. The musical overload (ALL THESE GUYS NEED TO STOP WATCHING "THE SHINING" OVER AND OVER) was also cloying. A good friend of my once said about depression: "Without any downs, there aren't any ups." And that's the problem with this movie -- sustain weirdness throughout an entire film and you're left with the blunted, one-side emotional response. Ain't The Shining. Ain't Rosemary's Baby. Those horror classics actually had some tonal balance and variation and humanity. These people just don't get it. I think even slightly cheesy films like The Conjuring or Sinister are better than overtly pretentious films like this. Having re-watched "The Shining" two days earlier, I can still safely say all the Kubrick wannabes are still missing the bus. If Kubrick were to approve of a modern horror film, it probably would have been "The Witch."

 

'Unsane' was excellent. Only watched it because it was directed by Soderbergh. Enjoyed it. It was creepy. Recommend it.

 

I really enjoyed it until the end, when it was almost funny, it was so off the wall.

Overall it is really well done imo.

 

Now if I can finally make it through "Upstream Color" today, I've really accomplished something. I didn't know it was possibly to be more artfully obtuse and post-modern New Age (someone needs to un-invent bokeh for a few years) than "The A.O." but this movie is surpassing it so far. I think I've started "Upstream Color" ten times and haven't made it through the first half hour.

 

Just saw it and it scared the hell out of me.I am not a jump scare person at all,sort of like watching a comedy that is not funny.Can't think of a more original or disturbing ending,the thought of how surreal the imagery was while the rest of the film was sort of grounded in reality(well the first 2/3) threw me.

 

I thought it was one of the creepiest and most disturbing films I've seen for years! Superb Great horror flicks are often divisive

 

Seconded - a few minor changes and I would call it superb, too. Certainly the best acting I've ever seen in any horror film.

 

Finally saw The Witch based on your recommendation. Wow, now this is how you make a horror flick! From the beautiful yet eerie scenery to their unique accents where you couldn't really make out what they were saying but understood just enough to get the gist of it. I loved the slower pacing of the film too, it really left you unprepared for the moments when something horrific did happen like

Spoiler: death scenes

the death of the baby at the beginning or the crow pecking at the mother's breast.

Absolutely loved it from beginning to end and couldn't take my eyes off the female lead Anya Taylor-Joy. Great actress and stunningly beautiful.