Amazing technical achievement by Ari Aster

Rating: 7/10 (25 June 2018)

This is a first feature film from director Ari Aster. The technique was amazingly well done, setting new boundaries for the genre, while using the best aspects of the classics. The director showed that he really knows his craft.
The film is very atmospheric, with a quiet pace and psychological tension that held my attention from the beginning. The technique and precision of image and sound are astonishing, and separates it from the other horror movies that we're used to watching. It settle the family drama really well, and it knew when to reveal and withhold information.
The supernatural aspects of the story contributed to the scary moments in the film, and although they were too over the top, the unpredictability of every scene and the technique used to build up the sensations that made us feel fear during those scenes actually overshadowed the story.
By the end, I was taken a little off the characters due to the over-exposition of the story background, but throughout the whole movie I could connect with them emotionally. They were really well acted, and had dramatic nuances that made them human and multi-dimensional.
A very good film overall, that made me feel fear through my spine in several scenes, a psychological kind of fear the doesn't make me feel manipulated. I can't say it is exactly original, because it takes so many things from other films of the genre, specially the Shining and the Exorcist, but it is really well made, and the way it mixes art-house cinema with mainstream is what makes it emotional and entertaining both as a drama and a horror film.