A Modern Horror Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (10 September 2019)

Not only were my expectations sufficiently undermined, but they were also usurped by a sense of astonishment for the maelstrom of emotion conjured by this film in the course of its runtime. Following a relatively benign opening, the story takes an abrupt descent into the declining psyches of the main characters, who are convincingly portrayed as being relentlessly battered by grief and familial decay. Elements of the supernatural are indeed in play, but are executed with such a laudable sense of subtlety that the fabric of the reality being presented becomes decidedly ambiguous--to wondrous effect. From a filmmaking standpoint, the editing and cinematography is phenomenal. No shot is wasted in conveying vital elements of the plot, especially with regard to foreshadowing, and the use of the periphery of the frame to display horrific imagery is far more terrifying than any jump scare--of which Hereditary is all but bereft. In short, this film, the directorial debut of Ari Aster--whose work I will be following closely from this point onward--is one of the most unsettling pieces I have ever viewed and is on par with the mastery of such classics as The Innocents (1961) and Suspiria (1977).