Slow burn beginning, firey end.

Rating: 7/10 (25 August 2018)

I had to come and add another review to the thousand or so already here. I guess Heriditary is not for everyone. I watched it and midway through I caught myself pondering why, when I already have so many nightmares, I'd watch a film that was giving me genuine chills.
Its not perfect by any means, at two hours I think it could definitely have used a little trimming, while wonderfully put together there are some long slow shots in the first hour that just draw the pacing out unnecessarily. That said, I also considered that perhaps it was to provide a counter point to the drama that really begins to make the movie unfold at about the 35 minute mark. The spark to the touch paper of this film left me with a physical sense of chill.
Then I begun to get bored again, and I was considering turning it off. Then thought to myself, its a shame that we've got so used to having quick pay offs that we can't admire the detail. A bit like drawing a dot on a tiny model laptop to signify the camera? There is some lovely direction here, even if it does sometimes feel prolonged. From the hour mark onward, I was treated to a rare (in modern horror) and palpable sense of growing dread.
It was nice to see new actors and some less familiar, but still known ones, playing unusual roles and doing so well. Perhaps in this sense giving the characters more of a feeling of genuineness, as you were seeing a character not just "such and such" playing.
One thing that I would preferred would have been a little more depth behind the inheritance. Some removal of character exposition earlier in the film could easily have made way for a little more explanation to exactly what happened at the end. But perhaps that was the point.