HEREDITARY (2018)
Label: Lionsgate Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 127 Minutes
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.00:1)
Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio with Optional English Subtitles
Director: Ari Aster
Cast: Toni Collette, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro, Ann Dowd, Gabriel Byrne
Hereditary openins with the death of a family matriarch who held many secrets from her daughter Annie (Toni Collette, Clockwatchers). Annie is an artist who specializes in creating miniatures, deeply upset at the death of her mother she offers a eulogy for her that sort of lays bare their strained relationship and her mother's secretive ways. Gabriel Byrne (Miller's Crossing) plays Annie quiet husband, a very reserved sort of clinical guy whom we learn was formerly her psychiatrist. They have two children together, 13-year old Charlie (Milly Shapiro) who is a creepoy kid with dark tendencies (and a peanut allergy) and 16-year old Peter (Alex Wolff, My Friend Dahmer) who seems adrift and delicate. The family dynamic is strained to say the least, the root cause of the family strife seems to stem from Annie's side of the family, bolstered by the passing of her secretive/cold mother and a family history of mental illness, which seems to have taken the life of her older brother years earlier. Annie feels her family is cursed, fearing she's ruining her children despite her best intention, with years of mental illness and family anguish taking their toll, it's a solid dramatic set-up. All of this Annie doesn't deal with at home, but she secretly confesses as much to a group of strangers at a support group for those whom have lost loved ones, which is where she meets a woman named Joan (Ann Dowd, The Leftovers) who has also lost a loved one.
The new friendship seems to offer a small modicum of solace to Annie, but things at home are strained, we learn of a sleepwalking incident years earlier that have strained her relationship with her kids, a distance she has yet to bridge. Things take a turn for the worse when one night she forces Peter to take his sister to a party with him, what follows is a shocker tragedy that rocks the family, and you start to think, yeah, this family might be cursed after all.
That's when we're introduced to a supernatural element, seemingly kind Joan introduces Annie to the ways of spirit-meddling by way of a seance, which Joan in turn brings home and makes her surviving family members get involved with, and what transpires sort of turns the idea of a family curse into a real-thing, not just some "oh, poor me" thing to say.
I won't spoil anymore than I've already hinted at, but this movie is incredibly intense, it's sort of crazy that this is Aster's first film as a director, he shows incredible control over the tone and atmosphere of the film, guiding it along an assured hand that keeps it from going right of the rails, and this is a film that could have careened into hilarity throughout. Collette's performance is intense, almost to the point to where laughter might be a valid reaction to it, because sometimes stuff is just t0o intense and you have to laugh to relieve the pressure, and this is a film keeps building and building to the breaking point, exploding into a wonderfully creepy final sprint that left me spinning in my seat with unease and delight.
The movie is expertly crafted, I enjoyed the slow-burn, and the gore in this film is used incredibly well, it's not over-flowing with geysers of blood, but when used it's always a shocker and a punch straight to the gut, with not one but several gruesome decapitation scenes that will haunt your nightmares, I'll never look at a rope saw the same way ever again.
Audio/Video: Hereditary arrives on Blu-ray from Lionsgate in 1080p HD, framed in 2.00:1 widescreen, and looking very good. Black levels are very strong, a lot of what happens in this film takes place drenched in darkness and the shadow detail is very good, the way creepy things seem to just barely manifest out of the dark is so startling, a very well-lensed and executed film all around, and it looks great in HD. The audio comes by way of an English DTS-HD MA Surround 5.1 mix that is subtle and potent when called upon, the unnerving score from Colin Stetson really gets some oomph in the mix, optional English subtitles are provided.
Extras include a makin-of featurette with the cast and crew, 16-min of deleted scenes and an image gallery of the miniatures in the film, plus some Lionsgate trailers, including Hereditary.
Special Features:
- Deleted Scenes (16 min)
- “Cursed: The True Nature of Hereditary” Featurette (20 min)
- “Evil in Miniature” Photo Gallery
I watched this with my kids and we kept murmuring amongst ourselves in disbelief as the film slowly unfolded, I had not watched any of the trailers for this before I saw it, and I sort of had thought I figured it out early on, I thought I knew where it was going, but it got me. This is a slice of riveting psychological horror with a n unsettling supernatural creepiness that hung with me long after the closing credits. This is not a feel good movie, it's a soul-destroying feel-bad movie, but one that I was talking about and trying to figure out for hours afterward, the mark of very fine film, definitely one of the best of 2018 in my book.
