Remember the name Ari Aster.

Rating: 9/10 (29 July 2019)

Released in June 2018, this movie has been on my radar for a while now, just enough to be aware of it's massive success but not really knowing what it's all about. Because of it's title, at first I thought we were getting something gruesome, like a horrible deformity passed on from one generation to the next. Surprisingly it's something different altogether and I do see why there's a comparison between this and one of the greatest horror movies of all time, The Exorcist.
Hereditary is about the Graham family and the events that unfold after Annie's (played by one of the most talented actress of this generation, Toni Collette) mother passed away. Along with the bubbling strain within her family, she tries to cope and look for a way to work through everything that's been going on even going as far as attending a group therapy...or even being interested at a seance. We all have different ways of coping and this movie shows how Annie deals with struggles: by creating dioramas of the events that happened to her (reminds me of a Twilight Zone episode from years ago), sometimes she sleepwalks, and eventually the seance. Things turn for the worst here on in, as forces beyond her control encroaches on her family as she performs one last attempt to save everyone by sacrificing herself. Whether she was successful or not is up to you to find out.
The movie is great because it blends the supernatural to Annie's DID (dissociative identity disorder) that by the end of it you are left asking if I should take it literally or figuratively. I read somewhere that we should take it literally and that's what even blows my mind a little more because if I took it figuratively, I can accept it, like this is really happening all in her mind. But to take it literally, it just adds a whole new layer to the experience after the fact. My mind is refusing to accept that all of what I saw were true.
With that said I have to agree that it is a great movie, as there's so much to unpack especially with the writer-director Ari Aster. He wanted to go for scares that were emotionally justified instead of just cheap jump scares and he succeeds. Toni said she's the most prepared director she's worked with and it shows. The tracking shots, the editing, the lighting and cinematography were all uniformed and beautifully staged. How prepared was he? He had a 75-page shot list for the the cinematography even before they found their location. He also started building his network of collaborators years before the movie was even approved. If this wasn't a labor of love then I don't know what is. It is awesome to see one's hard work rewarded with the success it's gotten and fortunately for us, he has 10 other screenplays and I'm already looking forward to each one of them. Remember the name, Ari Aster.
Now while everyone is raving how it's one of the greatest horror movies of all time, I would have to disagree. It's not yet, anyway. It's a very good movie, a well-prepared one. My only issue was it was kind of Stop-and-Go for me. There are scenes built up for suspense but will not follow through and will leave you hanging. I'm not sure if this was a technique, building smaller suspense for a bigger one but I was kind of hung up on some scenes and to be honest at some point I just started closing my eyes not because it was scary but I was starting to get sleepy. But other than that, the performances were great, the haunting feeling is everywhere (I might skip Utah in the future), and this is definitely worth the spilled popcorn and soda.