Hereditary (2018)

Directed by: Ari Aster | 126 minutes | drama, horror | Actors: Alex Wolff, Gabriel Byrne, Toni Collette, Milly Shapiro, Christy Summerhays, Morgan Lund, Mallory Bechtel, Jake Brown, Harrison Nell, BriAnn Rachele, Heidi Méndez, Moises L. Tovar, Jarrod Phillips, Ann Dowd

Is the horror genre making a comeback? After an annual parade of cheap, unoriginal horror films that mainly serve as easy dating films and quick earnings for the studio, the genre seems to be reviving again. ‘Hereditary’ is a strong example of this: a horror film with a good story and excellent cast that is actually scary.

In principle, ‘Hereditary’ does nothing special. The story is more or less as expected for this type of movie – after the death of the mysterious Graham family grandmother, a series of unexplained events take place, all connected with daughter Charlie (newcomer Milly Shapiro). Where the film differs, however, is the approach. This is not a hastily made horror film of barely an hour and a half with cheap scare effects like several come out every year. ‘Hereditary’ takes its time: the film lasts just over two hours, of which the first half hour contains little real horror. This gives us time to get to know the grieving characters and complex relationships within the family. When the fear really hits, we sympathize with the family torn apart. Toni Collette, previously seen in quality horror such as ‘The Sixth Sense’, steals the show as mother Annie, who is slowly going crazy over everything that happens to her and her family but is not believed by anyone. Alex Wolff (known from ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’) can also be mentioned as son Peter, who is overcome with guilt.

In terms of horror, ‘Hereditary’ doesn’t have to rely on cheap scare effects. The tension builds slowly, and the creepiest scenes go on for a nail-biting length. When it’s time to jump up, the film understands very well that it doesn’t require sudden loud music – what happens on screen is scary enough. Debut director Ari Aster, who can immediately compete with greats such as John Carpenter and William Friedkin, manages to keep this up until the very last moment.

The only bad thing about the film is that the supernatural setting of the events is nothing we haven’t seen before. That’s a small blemish on the blazon of a film that otherwise does a lot of grateful work to give the horror genre some color on the cheeks again.