I’d heard quite a lot about ‘Hereditary’ before I actually watched it, most of which stating that, although marketed as a ‘horror’ movie, it wasn’t so straight forward. Now, having sat through it, I can – sort of – see what they mean.
When you think of ‘horror’ you probably imagine monsters, slashers or something similar. Now, although ‘Hereditary’ definitely has a strong supernatural element running through it (not to mention some pretty disturbing imagery which I would definitely describe as ‘horrific!), it’s certainly not your average run-of-the-mill horror.
When questioned, even the film-makers go to great lengths to describe it as more of a ‘family drama’ (plus supernatural, etc). It weighs in at just over two hours, which is certainly longer than your average tale about a guy in an ice hockey mask slicing up teenagers. Instead, we have a story about what, on the surface could be described as a ‘traditional’ family of four (Toni Collette and Gabriel Byrne as the mother and father and Alex Wolff and Milly Shapiro as their children) and the way they’re coming to terms with the recent loss of the grandmother of the household.
It’s certainly a ‘character-focused’ piece and all four (or at least three – I did feel that Gabriel Byrne was given the least to do of the four) major characters get their chance to shine and also develop. We see how the death of the ‘matriarch’ affects them all and their dynamic, plus the problems her loss causes among them. For the most part, what ‘horror’ is displayed is due to their various mental breakdowns and how they see things (although there is one particularly graphic scene – only for a second or two – which will stay with me forever). Any supernatural threat comes in the final act when the weird stuff really starts going down.
It was certainly nice to see a horror movie try to be a little different and I felt compelled to watch it to the end, simply to see where it was going and, perhaps more importantly, what the hell was going on! Yes, it’s not completely black and white and the story does make you work for a few answers here and there. I even went as far as to watch a YouTube video on its ‘ending explained’ just to make sure I had actually understood it (and I’m pleased to say that I had!).
If it has a fault (for me, anyway) then it’s the film’s run-time. Yes, it does do a good job of building tension, however I did feel I’d like to get to the ‘meat’ of the story a little quicker than I actually did. However, that’s just a minor gripe and there were more than enough shocks and surprises that I never saw coming (and I’ve seen a lot of horror films!) which made the (long) journey worthwhile. If you’re in the mood for something long, drawn out and a little different in terms of horror, then it’s definitely worth sitting down for.
7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that
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