Modern, intelligent, suspenseful, well acted with a great score

Rating: 9/10 (21 September 2018)

Hereditary is a solid family drama caught in a horrific chain of events. There is a sense of strangeness and dread in the sadness and grief this family experiences from the very beginning. The writer and director, Ari Aster, is at work immediately in setting the tone and providing clues to the story to follow.
Without relying on "jump scare" tactics, Hereditary moves more slowly than most horror genre films, providing time to think, time to get into the minds and hearts of the characters. There are plenty of surprises, but not the parade of techniques that most horror films use. This builds a relationship between the viewer and characters as the story unfolds and the tension builds. The score and the camera work are powerful in drawing the viewer into the family drama.
The actors are exceptional, especially Toni Colette as the mother, also Gabriel Byrne as the father and Alex Wolff as the brother. As the mother, Colette has many unsettling family issues to deal with from her mother to her daughter and she works, mostly alone, to try to understand and accept or fight against these for her own sake and for the sake of her family. This is a powerful performance, filled with grief, sadness, frustration, and horror. Wolff as the teenage brother also takes us with him on his terrible journey.
Viewers turned reviewers who do not appreciate the gradual process of unveiling the horrible events or the culmination thereof may not have paid attention as the film proceeded or may have wanted more jump scares, more blood, more dead teenagers and less thoughtful participation in the story. That is unfortunate because this film is not only intelligent, but more emotionally terrifying because we care about the characters.
Also, no spoiler, the ending, for me, was brilliant in how it wrapped up the package with a bloody bow that was both smart and spooky.