Hereditary: Terrifyingly Weird

I had very high hopes for Hereditary, the latest horror movie hit now in theaters.  I had read some very good critical reviews, but I didn't know much at all about the plot.  As it turns out, the best way to go into this movie is not knowing what to expect.  In simple terms, and without giving any plot twists away (and there are many), the film follows the Graham family, who have just lost their grandmother Ellen, mother to miniature model artist Annie and her husband Steve.  Viewers get the sense early on that Ellen and Annie had a strained and difficult relationship, but we don't get many more details about this until much later in the film.  Annie and Steve have two teenage children, pothead slacker Peter and strange (so very strange) awkward younger daughter Charlie.  Without giving anything else away, I'll just say that there are soon more shocking, gruesome deaths, séances to wake the dead, demonic possessions, and several headless corpses.

The scare factor of this movie builds very, very (did I say very?) slowly.  The audience gets plenty of time to really get to know the characters before the chaotic, terrifying final act.  Sometimes I felt that it was moving along a little too slowly, but still I was never felt bored while watching.  This is mostly thanks to the movie's smart writing and pacing, which gave plot details away quickly enough to keep me invested but slowly enough to give me the feeling of quiet suspense that I crave in a good scary movie.  Even in the film's climax, the writers never took too much time to fully explain what the hell was going on, instead leaving part of this up to the audience's interpretation.  This bothered me a little at first, but in retrospect I actually liked the fact that the writers didn't use the tired horror movie trope of having a chosen supporting character explain everything in detail ("You see, the demon is inside Bobby because of that curse in 1862, and now we must throw holy water on him and chant this verse in Latin to make it go away").  I definitely picked up on homages to other classic horror films like The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby, but Hereditary had a unique style all its own, which I admire in any film or tv show.  The visual scares were subtle but effective, and the director clearly loved to tease the audience.  In one extended sequence, Peter slowly walked around his dark and quiet family home alone, and the audience kept waiting for a jump scare that never quite happened (at least not in then).  Annie's work building miniatures also contributed to the visual impact of the film.  Many times the camera panned in and out from the miniature models, giving the creepy sense that the family was in fact part of the models, and someone or something was watching and hovering over them.  

I also credit my enjoyment of Hereditary to the acting skills and restraint shown by Toni Collette as Annie.  For me Collette was the unquestioned strongest actor in the film.  Nobody does crazed, maniacal basket case quite like her, except perhaps Claire Danes on the Showtime series Homeland.  She has great range, as shown in the tv show The United States of Tara, where she played a character with multiple personalities, although there it was more for comedic effect.  Collette raised the stakes for the other actors in this film, who for me were alright but not extraordinary.  It's a longshot for a performance in a horror film to win any awards, but I would go so far to say that Collette deserves an Oscar nomination for this role.  I was also pleasantly surprised to see Ann Dowd pop up as Joan, a grief-stricken mother who befriends Annie and plays a vital role in the plot, which I won't give away.  I love Dowd on The Handmaid's Tale, and here she has a similarly friendly yet quietly malicious presence.

 I expect a Hereditary sequel (or more likely, prequel) within two years, but honestly I would rather it live on as a stand-alone film.  I don't want the uniqueness of it to be diluted by more films that would inevitably over-explain the story and diminish the impact of the original.  Although if Toni Collette is somehow a part of it, then I could change my mind...