Hereditary – a review

As the matriarch of the family passes away Anna (Toni Collette) tries to pick up the broken life her mother left her with. Not the easiest task since she inherited so many traits from her mother that sometimes the strain of her family life and especially her troubled youngest daughter gets the best of her.

Movies are often described as a boxing match. Frost/Nixon comes to mind as the two main players are in a day-on-end verbal fistfight dodging, hitting and taking. Every single rom-com is basically a fight between the sexes with (in the best ones) never a clear winner.

I always argue that this metaphor is equally suitable for horror-movies as well.

Which Hereditary truly is.

There’s the quick uppercut; breaking a nose and spurting blood all over the audience: the, so called, slasher genre. There is no tension in these kinds of movies because the audience knows that the killer is invincible ‘til the final act. So, while we get there we might enjoy the bloodshed and torture porn.

But then, like the famous Ali/Foreman rumble, there is also the fight that could go either way. You don’t know where it is going to end up. You don’t know if one of the players manages to squeeze an uppercut in. Anything could happen.

Go for the head, go for the gut.

Hereditary is such a boxing match of a movie. Even if I would spoil the story for you you’d still be surprised by how cleverly this movie dances around you giving an occasional painful blow.

Without any ‘surprise hits’ which you can read as: jump scares.

To end this metaphor with gut shots, Hereditary has many. A good horror movie can make you feel stomach-churning uncomfortable. Not because of the graphic effects but rather because the movie, makes you see things happen to people that you wish you didn’t. Especially if they are kind and caring.

Pet semetary comes to mind, so does the first hour of The exorcist (before the vomit starts) – all caring families with sweet children that suddenly find themselves in a depressing spiral towards their doom.

This is important if you want to make the audience feel uncomfortable. You don’t merely spring a monster or a slasher on them from the start. You show the loving family dynamic and then you gradually bring in the creepiness. The pain that then follows is tenfold.

That, at least, is the formula that works wonders for James Wan and Leigh Whannell. And, that’s also the formula that Hereditary pretty much breaks in the very first scene.

This, because the family in Hereditary isn’t as sweet and caring to begin with.

Female power(doll)houses

Being the acting powerhouse that she is Toni Collette plays a completely different character reacting to supernatural phenomena than she did in The sixth sense. Where the sixth sense mother character was sweet, patient and caring. Hereditary’s Anne is quite a terrible person who would do well talking over her problems with a therapist. Of course she doesn’t which creates a uneasy balance early on in the movie that displays, on the one hand a family that do in fact love each other whilst, on the other, a mother and daughter who are a bit unstable.

The other woman of the household is Charley played by Milly Shapiro. This girl singlehandedly steals her rightful place in the ‘creepy kids’ hall of fame. Where did the moviemakers find her?

There’s not much to say about her because she plays the archetype ‘creepy kid character’ (e.g. slow moving, silent, head always tilted down, glassy look in her eyes) we’ve all seen before. But she is doing a very good job.

I wouldn’t be surprised if people had to look up an interview with her on youtube

 just to reassure themselves that she isn’t the Devil’s spawn.

The men then (Gabriel Byrne and Alex Wolff) are the anchors of the story. These two characters are grounded deeply in the reality of the here and now. Which, in a scriptural way is crucial if you want the ‘gut punches’ to hit home and fester.

Gabriel Byrne is no stranger to horror as he actually played the fallen angel Lucifer himself in that
(rather terrible) Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle End of Days.

To this day I still think Byrne’s Satan was a perfect fit for the part but stuck in a terrible movie.

The stories we tell.

Script wise Hereditary is a different kind of horror. It takes well over an hour to truly get going and place a mystery before the audience.

A mystery, though, that any movie buff  can solve instantly.

Because that’s the point. Hereditary isn’t per se about the mystery of the strange happenings. This movie is about family dynamics and how it is unravelling. It’s not the ‘why’ or ‘how’ but the road travelled.

As one could say it: 'The best horror movies are horror movies that aren’t predominantly horror movies!' or by Guillermo del Toro’s words in Crimson Peak: “It’s not a ghost story it’s a story with ghosts in it.”

With bits and pieces of family history scattered throughout the tale Hereditary doesn’t underestimate the audience. It expects viewers to be involved and join the family on their scary journey. Such involvement automatically makes any kind of twist-ending or sleight-of-hand on the mystery front difficult to pull off. So, the movie opted for the next best thing: why do it at all? If members of the audience are clever enough to but the jigsaw pieces together, good for them, it’s not about the mystery (as Nolan’s The prestige kept reminding us).

I must admit- this takes some getting used to/acceptance. Perhaps I’m a bit out of the whole slow storytelling. Maybe I’ve been watching too many spoon-fed ‘there’s a mystery –solve it’-Scooby-Doo-like movies as of late. I guess it’s time for me to put on The Witch again.

There is also a big (BIG) stylish reference to one of the horror classics near the end. Just to drive home this point.

But this change of structure did make me enjoy the movie even more. Hereditary lingers in your mind all the way from the cinema until you dare to put out the nightlight en let it infest your dreams.

One spoiling remark.

“In a world…” where every movie has to be part of a franchise; I argue that horror-movies are the most comfortable. They feel no need to include a cameo from Captain America in every movie. Moreover, they can actually kill off some characters without being bothered to let them return (Superman).

Moreover, in franchise country horror movies were one of the pioneers when you look at the Jason, Freddy and Michael movies.

Currently the big horror franchises are in James Wan and Leight Whannell’s pockets. Namely: insidious, The conjuring and Saw.

Hereditary, I think, could be a great new addition to the horror-landscape. In this movie the cultists speak of eight angels of the Devil. One is born in this movie: the trickster (Paimon). Which means there are seven left.

So, with a little bit of luck we’ll be seeing seven more movies like Hereditary, each dealing with a different fallen Angel. Which could be awesome. In some movies ‘good’ wins, in others ‘evil’ does. But, then again, we all know how horror-franchises tend to go after part four.

Also is it my sick sense of humour but an actor called Gabriel BYRNE getting burned…

The house large and small.

Using the camera to create disturbing imagery is a difficult task to do right. A lot depends on the setting and set-design. This is also very true for Hereditary which makes good use of the various dollhouses and the strange configuration of the house.

But that doesn’t mean that the cameraman doesn’t have a trick up his/her sleeve every once in a while (apart from some night-and-day editing fun). To sidetrack a bit:

One of the shots I always hated was the 90 degree angle shot of an airplane in Ocean’s Twelve. This shot was utterly unnecessary. In fact, it infuriated me because it insulted my intelligence by trying to dupe me with some Avant-Garde visuals in what was basically a summer blockbuster.

In Hereditary a similar shot is used but here it works. Here, at this point in the story, Anne’s world is upside down. At this point in the story anything can happen – so of course you include the ‘upside down –all seeing eye’-shot; it increases the tension.

But as I said, a camera is nothing without the things in front of it. If it are the creepy dollhouses, the red glowing shack or some really gross practical effects

I did mention that Hereditary is truly a horror film right?

the camera slowly creeps forward showing you just enough to bring the goosebumps.

The end

As the horror that plagued the family comes to a close the viewer is rewarded with a great rendition of Both Sides Now as the credits roll. Obviously this is an obligatory horror trope – put in a classic song over the credits.

A movie isn’t over until the credits are done – until every single frame has been shown.

But for me it gave me a moment to catch my breath. A sweet and lovely song that reassured me that what I just watched was only a horror movie. That the world outside is still, somewhat, okay. Then I listened to the lyrics: “But now old friends they're acting strange. They shake their heads, they say I've changed“.