Overrated but worth a watch

Rating: 6/10 (21 June 2019)

Before watching Hereditary, I read a number of reviews that called it not only the best horror movie in 2018, but a competitor to The Exorcist. This set my expectations far too high, and it took me a while to get past being miffed and acknowledge the film's good qualities. Prepare yourself for an occasionally engaging but uneven film with a few novel twists, and hopefully you won't experience the same level of disappointment.
The film is premised on the audience not truly understanding the nature of the characters. However, neither the characters as presented nor their interactions with each other ring true. Mother Annie (Toni Collette) is an artist who builds miniature worlds, often replicating personal environments such as her mother's sickbed. We're expected to believe that her work is in demand and that she is behind in creating new pieces for a gallery showing, but her art exists only as a conceit, a literal demonstration to the audience of her mental state. Her mismatched husband Steve (Gabriel Byrne) is the world's worst psychiatrist, alternately enabling and ignoring the disturbing behavior of his wife and children. Their teenage son Peter is a stoner with a crush on the girl who sits in front of him. He is the most authentic of the family members, but the decisions forced upon him by the script - most of them related to Peter's sister Charlie - highlight that he exists only on film.
Charlie is the most contrived of the lot, and it's not because of the reasons provided by the movie. Her matted, unwashed bob and cheap, oversized clothing are too shabby for a homeless girl, let alone one from an upper middle class home. It's impossible to believe that she is 13, let alone a girl who would attend (and whose mother would insist she attend) a high school party with drugs and booze. None of the revelations about Charlie fit with the developmentally delayed misfit portrayed.
It's difficult to divulge more about the film's shortcomings without including spoilers. The positives are that the pace is relatively quick; there are some enjoyable jump scares; and regardless of its logic, the ending is unpredictable. Paying close attention to the narrative and settings from the outset will make the final discoveries more rewarding.