Hereditary

I want to start my commentary on Hereditary with a reminiscence of a horror series and a very famous horror film. Do you know what the most impressive thing about the whole Hellraiser series was? It was not the creatures from hell, the screaming victims, or the splashes of blood. The most impressive scene is when an unknown man enters a bazaar and looks intensely at the salesman, who returns his gaze, and dryly asks, "What do you want?" - "The box." - "It is yours. It always has been." The viewer doesn't know where the screenwriter and director are leading him, but from the construction of the scene, he understands that he has encountered something fateful and extremely unsettling. The famous film The Shining doesn't show puppets in every other scene, but creatively and cleverly builds atmosphere and gradually unsettles not only its protagonists but also the viewer, letting them know where the boundaries of erupting madness and encounter with irrational evil begin. The director simply knows well that we fear most what we cannot see and do not know... From a single film, I cannot tell if Ari Aster is a director who people will go see just because of his name, but from our first encounter, I know that he is a skillful craftsman and, in terms of direction, clearly represents above-average quality within the genre. However, the situation is worse with his role as a screenwriter. What caught my attention in his title are basically two things that differ from the genre average, which - let's admit - is quite low. For one, unlike the genre average, Aster takes his time with the exposition. For a long time, he saves the jump scares and puppets, and the moviegoer has the feeling they are watching a psychological horror about a family falling apart due to alienation, guilt, bitterness, and increasing hatred. For an average genre fan, Hereditary will be slow and relatively intimate. Even the supernatural motif that appears roughly a third of the way into the film tends to be considered something that is meant to deceive the viewer for some time, and you do not attach much significance to it. Unfortunately, in the final third, the author descends onto a well-trodden path of supernatural horror with a satanic motif. It's a shame, as the psychological and mysterious aspect, which dealt with the unknown, was much more interesting to me, and I consider the result rather a malicious deception from Ari Aster. In terms of logic in building the story, the final part unfortunately clashes somewhat clumsily with the previous one, and as a viewer, I am not very satisfied with it. Either surprise me with something atmospheric that manages to precisely impact my emotions and psyche, and reveals nothing about the essence of the unknown evil, or introduce a complex, functioning mythology of the world you want to invite me into. The second thing is the successful casting choices, where, above all, Toni Collette and Milly Shapiro are true treasures for the film, and they could have been worked with even more intensively. Similarly, the musical aspect of the film works perfectly, creating tension and a growing sense of depression and doom. It is precisely because of them that I ultimately lean toward giving the film four stars. Overall impression: 70%. (22/07/2018) (less) (more)