Hereditary - I need to stop comparing all horror to The Witch...

Everyone went mental for Hereditary last year.  Given the absolute and unchanging aversion that my girlfriend has to horror films, not only was I unable to get to the cinema to watch it, I had to wait until she was working late and safety out of the house for several hours before the DVD even got close to the player.  Scares she does not like.  Probably best she never watches this then.

Toni Collette plays Annie, mother of two and daughter to a controlling, steely-gazed matriarch who's funeral opens the film.  Her presence looms over the family, seemingly able to influence daughter Charlie from the beyond.  When further tragedy strikes the family, Annie looks to one of her mother's friends to make contact beyond the grave.  Psychosis, visions, time and space then begin to warp around Annie as she eventually realises the true motivations her own mother had towards Charlie.

It's a film that understands how to do horror, and its place in the genre.  The most obvious comparison is Don't Look Now, but its themes of loss and devil worship also lead to Rosemary's Baby.  There are numerous well-executed unnerving asides, visual illusions and tone-setting changes of lighting / camera movements - Hereditary is a very well-made film, a lot of attention has been paid to the smallest of details.  Milly Shapiro is well-cast as Charlie, her quizzical and slightly awkward appearance defy us to decide if she's about the be the victim or instigator of horrors to come

The opening shot zooms into a dolls house and enters the bedroom in which the film begins.  The implication is that this is somehow unreal, a story within a story or that the characters herein are playthings of puppeteers unknown.  This ties into the eventual themes of demonic influence, action from beyond the grave and loss of control.

I really don't want to do this, but I have to admit that I felt let down by the final few scenes.  Everything kind of gets spelled out nicely, and the camera lingers slightly too long and with too much lighting & focus on the demonic cult that has led Annie down the path of madness.  The mystery of the first two acts is unravelled just a little too much.  I don't want to keep going on about it, but Robert Eggers' The Witch has completely reset my opinion of how much a horror film can and should reveal at its close.  If you can tease just enough to maintain the mystery beyond the closing credits, and allow multiple plausible explanations, then you've aced it.  The fact that the final shine is taken off Hereditary simply because it isn't as strong at its close as The Witch shouldn't detract, but after having expected so much it would be a lie of omission to fail to state it.

Hereditary is an extremely good horror / thriller that will scare the pants of anyone unfamiliar with the genre.  The end of the first act is particularly chilling, and the constant return to death and dread throughout are emphasised by occasional and effective visual jump scares.  It definitely kept me on edge throughout - not bad for this veteran of the genre.  I think the real take-home of this review is that I need to stop comparing every scary movie that comes out from here to the end of time to The Witch - Hereditary is brutal, fascinating, gripping, unflinching and horrifying.  It's great.