Brilliant!

Rating: 9/10 (26 June 2018)

Let me start by saying that I'm a 45 year old horror movie buff from Germany who has a hard time with many of the newer genre movie fare. Most of them rely to much on "jumps scares" every 5 minutes, in order to keep their audience awake. They might indeed make you jump for a second, but the horror rarely has a lasting effect. It doesn't "creep into your mind" as good horror is supposed to do. Personally, I'm much into 70s horror, such as Rosemarys Baby, The Excorcist, Suspiria etc. Those are movies that gave me the creeps the first time I saw them, and they still do. Some of the more recent movies I would place in that category have been The Witch and Sinister, as well as many of the movies of Mike Flanagan (Oculus,Absentia etc) - a great young talent in genre filmmaking. And now Hereditary , a movie you have to love if you're into real, "serious" adult horror instead of all the "Kiddie-Stuff" they produce nowadays. The atmosphere is mesmerizing from the first scene on, and it creates an increasingly dreamlike atmosphere and a growing feeling of dread that doesn't come with cheap scares. Still it is not an "art film" in the sense of being "style over substance". The story is not new, but told very well and it is quite reminiscent of some of the 70s stuff I've mentioned. And - also quite rare - has an excellent pay off. I go to the movies a lot - many horror movies in the hope of finding "the one" that does not disappoint. Usually, the (mostly) teenage audience going to such movies tends to be quite annoying, talking, laughing etc.. Not with this one. I can't remember the last time seeing a horror movie audience being so mesmerized and quiet up until the last scene. Truly a masterpiece.