REVIEW: Hereditary is a horror masterpiece and hits an awesome career peak for Toni Collette
HEREDITARY slowly and sinisterly builds a tower of cower from which there is no coming down. See this chilling horror masterpiece with no detailed advance intel if you can.
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IN the past 18 months, the horror genre has come alive once more after a long period of playing dead.
Two exemplary films have been particularly responsible for the surprise reanimation of the form: Get Out and A Quiet Place.
Both have now been trumped by the arrival of Hereditary, a sophisticated and artfully accomplished scare-fest which weaves familiar elements of the psychological thriller and the gut-wrenching shocker into something fresh, unworldly and utterly terrifying.
Put down your glasses. Pick up those smelling salts. Maybe some oxygen, too. For Hereditary slowly and sinisterly builds a tower of cower from which there is no coming down.
Luring you all the way up to the intimidating heights scaled here is an incredible, career-best performance from Toni Collette, riskily reaching for notes clearly beyond most actors.
When she hits them — and oh my, does she hit them — the effect is palpably powerful in every regard.
The deceptively intricate plotting of Hereditary — and the treacherous modesty with which it incrementally increase a strong dose of pure dread — deserves every chance to be experienced cold.
Annie Graham (Collette) has just lost her elderly mother. Though painfully estranged at the time of passing, the demise of someone she loved and loathed in her lifetime has rocked Annie in ways she did not expect.
Pouring herself into her work as an artist specialising in eerie miniature dioramas is not about to fill the void for Annie. Her grasp as a mother is also beginning to loosen in a worrying manner.
Both of Annie’s children — Charlie (Milly Shapiro), a nervous, solitary girl, and Peter (Alex Wolff), a self-medicating stoner — are drifting towards places from which she may not be able to retrieve them.
Annie’s husband Steve (Gabriel Byrne) can sense a darkness descending on his family, but can only watch on helplessly as the shadows continue a mysteriously menacing advance.
Hereditary’s carefully controlled release of essential intel bleeds its way into your consciousness and steadily sets about leaving a bruise there.
The effect is ominously addling, yet addictive at the same time: just as there are points where you wish you did not know any more than you already do, the need to discover where this plunge into the unknown will finally land never, ever goes away.
A modern masterpiece, all the more remarkable when you learn it has been immaculately and intimidatingly crafted by a first-time filmmaker in Ari Aster.
HEREDITARY (MA15+)
Rating: Five stars (5 out of 5)
Director: Ari Aster (feature debut)
Starring: Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro.
A mourning has broken … and pieces have gone missing.
Originally published as REVIEW: Hereditary is a horror masterpiece and hits an awesome career peak for Toni Collette
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