[yasr_overall_rating]
When the matriarch of the Graham family passes away, her daughter’s family begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry.
“Hereditary” has been called by some, “this generation’s ‘The Exorcist’,” but I have to disagree. While both movies are scary and even more so because they get inside your head, make no mistake, this film pales in comparison to William Friedkin’s masterpiece. Granted, it’s had a 45-year headstart to make an impact so in another twenty years or so, I might re-watch “Hereditary” to see if my feelings have changed.
The story takes place right after the death of Ellen, the matriarch of the Graham family. She leaves behind her daughter Annie (Toni Collette), Annie’s husband Steve (Gabriel Byrne), and their two teenagers, Peter (Alex Wolff), and Charlie (Milly Shapiro). While each member of the household grieves differently, Annie apparently feels more relief than grief, and that upsets her more than the passing of her mother. Steve tries to encourage her that everyone grieves in their own special way and that it will come to her eventually. Annie works from home as a scale model maker while Steve is out at the office all day. One evening, Peter is invited to a party and Annie insists that he bring his sister Charlie with him if he wants to borrow her car. While he loves his sister, the thought of taking her to a party where his friends will be is not appealing but he needs the car so he takes her with him.
Once there, he leaves Charlie in the kitchen and invites her to help herself to some chocolate cake on the table. While he smokes marijuana with his friends, Charlie begins to have a reaction to the cake because it contains nuts, to which she is allergic. Because he forgot to bring her Epi-Pen, he puts her in the car and rushes to the hospital. On the way, Charlie’s breathing gets worse and she opens the window, hoping the fresh air will make her feel better but when Peter swerves to avoid hitting an animal in front of him, and the car skids off the road, he inadvertently causes an accident which takes the life of his sister. As the family tries to deal with two deaths, Peter and his mother become even more estranged. Annie decides to take solace in a support group and meets Joan (Ann Dowd), a woman who claims she knew her mother.
When she tells Annie that she lost both her son and grandson in a drowning accident, the two women bond and spend time together. Around the house though, Annie is convinced that the spirit of her mother is haunting her while Peter is feeling the presence of Charlie, even going so far as stating that he can hear the clicking noises she used to make with her mouth. Annie begins hallucinating, envisioning horrible scenes of murder and mutilation towards Peter. When Joan informs Annie that she held a séance at her apartment and was able to contact her grandson, she recommends Annie do the same for her daughter and mother. Annie is skeptical, initially laughing it off but eventually, she agrees. Later though, she regrets her actions as it only seems to have made things even worse. Going through some old photos and artifacts, she realizes that her mother was into black magic and the occult, unbeknownst to her, and that Joan was a part of the group. When she tries to warn Steve, the supernatural powers within the house prevent that from happening and with only Annie and Peter left, she must try to protect her son at all costs, before it is too late.
Where “Hereditary” succeeds in genuinely scaring you, is in its simplicity. In the séance scene at Joan’s apartment, when she tries to reach out to the spirit of her grandson, just to prove to Annie that it actually works, we never “see” anything but it is all up there on the screen. A gust of wind blows Annie’s hair, a glass moves across a table by itself, a scene that could have been laughable is genuinely scary because of Toni Collette’s authentic reaction. A skeptic in the beginning, as she delves deeper and deeper into the occult, oblivious that her actions are actually enabling the spirits and their objectives, when she finally realizes what is going on, and that everything that happened in the house after her mother’s death, was predetermined, she becomes cognizant of the fact that there is no escape, not for her or her family. That is a pretty scary thought right there, that no matter what choices and decisions you make, they are not going to make a world of difference in the end. That is true terror.
Where the movie falls apart, for me, is in the last act. Up until this point, everything comes into focus beautifully and you realize that every little nuance, every glance, every insinuation throughout the movie, was meant to be. It all makes perfect sense but as we move towards the film’s big shocking reveal, suddenly, everything changes and the film switches gears. Toni Collette, who has never been better and who owns this movie, resorts to overdramatization, and excessive hyperbole. When she tries to convince her husband Steve of what is going on, it’s almost like she has passed the point of emotional exhaustion and where there should be tears, there are none but she proceeds to do the scene as if the tears were there, and it feels awkward. At this point, people at the screening began to laugh where no humor was evident and that is never a good sign. As the movie segues into the big twist, it is so far-fetched and completely out of left field, I felt all the genuine fear and dread that infused me up to this point, quickly leave my body. As the final credits began to roll, I couldn’t believe that something that started off so legitimately terrifying, could end on such a comical and preposterous note. I’ll give director Ari Aster a pass though, seeing that this was his feature-film directorial debut, he still has a lot to learn. Maybe on his next outing, he’ll succeed where he failed here.
In theaters Friday, June 8th
