HEREDITARY

Annie Graham (Toni Collette),her husband Steve (Gabriel Byrne), their teenage son Peter (Alex Wolff), and their 13-year-old daughter Charlie (Milly Shapiro) live in an unnamed north western US town in a large neo-gothic home, surrounded by dark woods. Annie works as an artist and builds scale model recreations of scenes from her life. Annie works from home and until her mother Ellen’s recent death from dementia, had been caring for her until she died. At the funeral, the family appear emotionally blank and shut- off. Clearly there’s been much trauma and animosity within their strained relationships and the mother’s death has come as something of a relief for the family. After some time, Annie joins a grief counselling support group and meets Joanie (Anne Dowd from The Handmaid’s Tale), Joanie sells a sceptical Annie on spiritualism and seances, insisting that Annie explore this dimension of her life and try to get some closure on her grief and bereavement.

Marketing for Hereditary will try to sell the idea that this is a broadly aimed horror film that holds appeal to a wide audience, but I suspect this just isn’t the case. It may appeal to a large audience but given the absolute batshit insane paths this story takes, the film itself will polarise audiences. What you do need to know before seeing it, is that as a horror film it takes no prisoners. So be aware that even for jaded fans of the genre like myself, this film packs a serious wallop. Writer/Director Ari Aster is clearly a fan of the horror films that showcase directorial technique, such as the films of Brian de Palma and David Cronenberg, where long deliberate takes and intricate, slow camerawork lulls (and almost even hypnotises) the audience into a sedate mindset. All the while he underpins the proceedings with a sub-woof drone that lays on a vibe of palpable dread, so when things escalate, it goes for the audience’s jugular. The operatic heights it hits owe a debt to ‘giallo’ cinema and Italian horror filmmakers like Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci and Mario Bava but it also shares something with other films that polarise audiences in a similar way, such as The Killing of a Sacred Deer and Mother!. Collette’s performance alone is reason to see the film, as she runs the gamut of see-sawing, extreme emotional states and edgy paranoia. The film hinges on her emotional authenticity and her acting skill - and that is a sight to behold. If you enjoy horror and are open to left-field storytelling in the genre, avoid trailers and spoilers and just see it.