This Generation's Exorcist

Rating: 9/10 (4 September 2018)

I don't like slow burn movies like The Witch or It Follows. They usually are so careful and plodding, that when the Big Thing that happens in the end comes around, I'm usually just glad it's over. But Hereditary kept me glued to the screen the whole time, never letting me go, plodding along and gripping me the whole way through. And when that Big Thing happens, holy moley does it happen.
Hereditary is about...well...uh...a grandma dies....and...and then some weird stuff starts happening. It's hard to really get into this movie without ruining it. The story really takes some twists and turns, slowly feeding you information along the way, horrifying you all the while. It feels more like a family drama than horror at times, but then something will happen and remind you that you're here to be real spooked. Everyone in this film does a fantastic job of playing their part. Toni Collete is a FORCE as the mother. She is crazy and complex. Collete really puts on a show here and drives this one home. Alex Wolff, who plays the son, gives a great performance here as well. The best and most shocking scene in the whole film is given to him, and he nails it out of the park. And don't even get me started on the little girl, Milly Shapiro. She dosen't say much, but she had a presence in this movie like no other.
The camera work is amazing. As Toni Collete's character makes models and dioramas, the whole films feels like you are trapped inside one with this family. Don't expect jump scares in this either. The horror in this movie is plain and KNOWS it's scary. It dosen't need any frills or build up for it to scare or horrify you. The effects in the movie are all practical as well, so it really adds that realistic factor of the horror.
The only issues I had with this movie are that it drags a bit a few times, and one of the special effects looked very unrealistic when it happened. It was near the end in the son's bedroom when something was on the wall. When it crawled away, it didn't look very believable to me and jarred me out of the magic that had been established already.
All and all, catch this movie. Easily the best movie I've seen this year all around. It'll take a really special movie to knock this one out of that front place. With the subtle scariness, to the brutal horror, this movie is everything you'd want out of a good classic horror movie.