Hereditary (2018) Review: 2/5 Visual Penmanship of Horror
For many horror fans, A24’s Hereditary, in its own way, is the visual penmanship of horror. It’s not like the movie itself isn’t powerful. The story of a family who lost their grandmother, and a curse starts to enwrap the family. Engorge is more like it. The world of Hereditary is Ari Aster’s masterpiece, but it’s almost like watching a doll maker move all his characters around in the movements he wants, and nothing like the audience expects. Like in the film. As all horror writers and filmmakers are, they are puppeteers. Usually, it’s a kind of god like, omnipresent feeling. It does do something interesting. Whenever the movie starts to reveal any sign of ghosts, it looks a shadow or bright flash of sun hits the character or covers the surroundings. Almost distant or even faded.
The way a camera moves in Hereditary is like accepting a banality to the world within, as the family’s grandmother’s casket is exhumed, mysteriously, and a ritual brings about a curse upon the family, in order to help create a enticing, but subtle end to one of the better horror movies in the last decade. It’s America’s final answer to having some flare of Japanese horror that audiences really did enjoy.
The question is, did I enjoy it? Well, it’s like every horror movie ever made. But horror movies are presented or told in a way people can understand it. The way Toni Collette is losing her mind, acting through two dreams as she sets herself on fire. What makes the movie barely passable is the idea that so much craft and care went into this movie that it’s could grate on any modern horror viewer. It’s so old school in the presentation, but while most of the movie is atmospheric, in nature, the delivery still does its job.
It’s like going to dinner with a beautiful blonde haired blue eyed woman. She’s kind, considerate, listens, but seems a little stodgy. Like she can’t exactly eat her food. You ask what’s wrong, and then hear a slight fart rip out. And most men would laugh at this, because it’s what makes horror so funny.
Besides that little metaphor, so much of the movie is built up that it becomes a chore by the end, but the visual perfection of it turns itself to 11, by the end, but does that impede on the mood or the atmosphere Ari Aster wants. Honestly, no, but it doesn’t really reward another viewing, because after that, everything is so clear that you know every plot beat. But it almost owes so much debt to being a low budget horror film that the slowness can almost become a crutch, and veteran horror movie fans have to follow it like a Kubrick movie. And by any means is Heredetary on a Kubrick level horror, by any means, and while the film delivers on the horror, reaching that place can become tedious. Some of the tedious and deliberate pace works if you’re not sort of bored by it, by the end.
Heredetary definitely shows the strength of A24’s catalogue has met its careful power or slow frustrating storytelling, and never managed to pull off a complete horror ride since.
Final Analysis: 2/5
-Louis Bruno is the author of more than 21 books, including, The Michael Project, The Michael Project: Book 2: The Lost Children of Eve, Thy Kingdom Come, The Disintegrating Bloodline Part 2: Chaos, The Data Chase, The Disintegrating Bloodline part 3: Solvè, The Disintegrating Bloodline (and the original text re-released in 2019), Apocalypse Soldier, The Data Chase, Selection: The First Book of the Life and Death Saga, and Blinking Eyes: The Second Book of the Life and Death Saga, Hierarchy of Dwindling Sheep, The City of Sand, The God of Curiosity, To the Moon and Back, The Villain Lives and The Villain Lives: The Divided Pinpoint, Come Home, Young One, City of Sand: Book 1: The Holy Terror, and The Voices Are Alive, and The City of Sand: Book 2: Jerusalem Ignited. He has a Bachelor of Arts in English from University of Phoenix. His books can be found on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Lulu. He can be found on Gab, https://gab.com/thereallouistbruno, Minds https://www.minds.com/lbruno8063/. Instagram @lbrruno8063 and @louisbrunoofficialbook. Twitter: https://twitter.com/LouisBr88881650. He has written for the Intellectual Conservative and Ephemere. His two newest books, The City of Sand: Book 2: Jerusalem Ignited, and The Savior, the Flood, and the Beast: Three Plays are out now: https://www.amazon.com/City-Sand-Book-Jerusalem-Ignited/dp/1365979660/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1G8HAWZP73ZFO&keywords=Louis+Bruno+City+of+Sand+book+2&qid=1675772880&sprefix=louis+bruno+city+of+sand+book+2%2Caps%2C88&sr=8-1. https://www.amazon.com/Savior-Flood-Beast-Three-Plays/dp/1088120997/ref=pd_ybh_a_sccl_4/140-0249150-4265358?pd_rd_w=W5fsa&content-id=amzn1.sym.67f8cf21-ade4-4299-b433-69e404eeecf1&pf_rd_p=67f8cf21-ade4-4299-b433-69e404eeecf1&pf_rd_r=2E73RTDRBVPZEY5D77V2&pd_rd_wg=69KGI&pd_rd_r=59d8721c-bf89-4fa7-bd88-7a072004a89f&pd_rd_i=1088120997&psc=1.