Hereditary is Fairly Scary

Rating: 8/10 (17 June 2018)

Just going to open with this: This film is 14A in British Columbia, which unfortunately means the showings are full of obnoxious teenagers who think clucking constantly is funniest thing in the world, and that really does ruin the movie-going experience in a big way. However, I still felt this was a great film, even if it doesn't hit with those with the same IQ as their age who are brainwashed into adoring trashy jumpscare-riddled garbage.
I was told this film is not scary, but is seriously &$@^ed up, but as soon as I saw the apparition early off in the film, I was concerned. One of my biggest fears is hallucination, so the subject matter and creepy happenings throughout the film were very effective. I was also impressed to find there were only two minor jumpscares in the film, though there were several auditory scares, which is the only bit in modern horror that I have trouble enjoying a film through. It's quite odd that when this film decides a moment is particularly creepy, an act as simple as flicking a lightswitch is amplified to 60 decibels. This only occurred several times anyways, so it was hardly an insurmountable feat.
The film feels more like a drama than a horror film, even as far as classic horror movies go. I feel like the dramatic elements are the strongest aspect of the film, but that they would be simply too devastating to have in a plain drama film. It feels different, but it works, and the added creepy atmosphere fits perfectly with the traumatic material, though I wish they stuck with the drama through til the end.
The acting ranged from awful to excellent. Most of the actors do a fantastic job, aside from the teenage boy played by Alex Wolff, who was hit-or-miss. This guy can emote excellently despite having a derpy face, up until he opens his mouth and attempts to deliver his lines. His dialogue isn't written well, which adds to this, as he screams and cries "mommy" despite being an angsty teenager. He pulls off depressed, shocked, and angry perfectly fine, but as soon as he attempts sad, the results are immersion-breakingly awful. There's a scene where he attempts to cry, and it sounds like he's mocking crying, almost like he's intentionally throwing the scene and they just kept it.
There were a lot of moments in which there were creepy elements subtly hiding in the background of prolonged shots, which tends to unfortunately appear in otherwise terrible horror films such as The Mothman Prophecies and The Strangers. I'm glad to see this technique properly realized and executed in this film. I wasn't bored despite the many scenes that had ultimately very little density to them, as the suspense was there, and there was enough confusion in the film to which there were several directions it could go at any point.
The cinematography was very good, and certainly better than The Witch in that regard. This film is nearly as disturbing, but also much less painful on the eyes, styling it up with actual modern editing techniques, most notably color correction to make the scenes pop.
The CGI effects are pretty good and interesting for the most part, up until the bugs and flies show up. The weird effects are interesting, and add to the bizarre nightmare-like air to the second act of the film. The flies are absurdly bad, and simply look like black smears whizzing around in circles through rooms. They look like basic animation loops placed incorrectly given the shots that were filmed.
I also felt the ending to be a bit weak in comparison to the rest of the film. I was interested to see where the film's story was heading throughout the first two acts, and I was a bit disappointed with the conclusion. It was as goofy as it was disturbing whereas the rest of the film was just very disturbing.
The film also does feel like it drags a bit towards the end, but not by much. I could imagine others might find it to be perfect, and others to find it mind-numbingly long, but I feel it's fine.
All-in-all, I would highly recommend this film, but be prepared for obnoxious morons to attempt to break the immersion.