Only the first 100 minutes are the great material everyone's describing

Rating: 7/10 (15 September 2019)

I loved the first 100 minutes of HEREDITARY. Psychological anguish brilliantly acted by a superb cast. Visuals that feel like Wes Anderson gone wrong. An atmosphere of dread and despair that recalls the great psychological horror classics like ROSEMARY'S BABY.
And then, we get to the "twist." And what a lame twist it is. The moment Collette starts climbing the walls like Spiderman and gliding about like a Scooby-Doo ghost, the atmosphere was broken.
HEREDITARY is most compelling when the horror comes from the awful tragedy of the young girl's death or the emotional hell the family goes through in the aftermath, blaming one another. I spent much of the movie terrified the mother would break down completely and kill her own son.
The twist is such a conventional letdown. It felt so, so boilerplate, something you'd get from THE CONJURING.
The only reason this isn't lower than a 7/10 from me is because the first half was just so great. Too bad it couldn't make the landing...