A revival of true horror

Rating: 8/10 (29 January 2019)

Hereditary is gritty, bleak, vivid, tenacious, unforgiving, and at every turn is capable of punishing even the most veteran of horror enthusiasts who thought they'd seen it all - the film graces us with the twists and turns of a truly uncomfortable, bizarre, and contorted horror rarely ever witnessed in the genre.
It proves that Ari Aster, both director and writer, is a prodigious talent that has much to offer.
The acting was excellent and carried the production into a rawness and tension that forces itself on the viewer; leveraging embarrassment and the repulsiveness of snot, blood, tears coupled with grim expressions of urgency, fear, frustration, disgust, and disbelief.
This is a film with many faces, many layers, and a brilliance in its portrayal of the vicarious, capricious, and evolving tumultuous landscape of human emotions.
Toni Collette, Milly Shapiro, Gabriel Byrne, and Alex Wolff all presented a family of distinct characters with motives, emotions, and fully-fledged personalities. Their presentation of ordinary modesty right through to the closing scenes is testament to their excellence.
The film leaves nothing on the table; grabbing at the viewer and pulling them into places they never expected to go.
Aster's primary tool is to explore the application of the downright bizarre and strange as an expression of horror. He succeeds.
The shots and content are often abstract, they have the gripping weirdness of John Carpenter's "The Thing", the eccentricity of Polanksi's "Rosemary's Baby", yet the element of stability is never entirely lost; the underpinning soberness and sensibility of Gabriel Byrne's Steve offers this, giving a point of reference and grounding, while making the strange seem that much stranger.
Why is that? Because strangeness is always, at every opportunity, framed in the borders of reality. When flanked by the contrasting elements of realism, bizarre horror is much more compelling and believable. That's what makes this film excellent.
I would have preferred an ending less involved in the occult. It is a less accessible ending, but rewards those who follow the details. That being said, it is in keeping with the motif of the unknown; the bewilderment of being lost in the confines of your own home; and even your own body, as the film reveals.
This is a stunning horror debut for Aster, 7.8/10