Good Ingredients, Lousy Recipe

Rating: 3/10 (13 June 2018)

If you could concoct a neat little formula that required ten parts to engineer a horror film that rated a perfect 10, Hereditary has seven or eight of those parts. And I give it a 3.
Look, there is a wealth of atmosphere. At times, the movie has tremendous impact. We experience this in the form of a potent sinister mood, a gut-wrenching emotional journey, and a palpable sense of mounting dread. There are some great performances in the mix, and at times the script is as inspired as the stellar direction. The score is magnificent throughout, standing as Hereditary's greatest strength.
So where did this critical darling go wrong? Well, that's a long list too. First off, the pacing is a tremendous flaw. I don't mind a slow burn or a methodical pace in general, but this one fell asleep at the wheel far too often. It would settle into a groove and then drift away. It would find it's center again and then it would lose focus. It came and went, and I found myself checking ng my watch way too much. It was a bit maddening. It was also dreadfully predictable. The overall trajectory of the picture is obvious from the start, and the filmmakers seem to think they're pulling the rug out from under our feet long after everyone in thevaudience has a firm understanding if what is unfolding. While many of the performances are top-notch, many are uneven at best. That script containing jolts of inspiration is also loaded with bad beats and far too many boneheaded decisions. Your average slasher flick boasts smarter characters. Finally, while there are some serious scares in Hereditary, many of the movie's attempts to frighten us fall embarrassingly short. During the woeful climax, the audience I viewed this one with spent far more time howling with laughter than they did gasping.
Hereditary arrives with a wealth of potential and masterful direction, but in the end it can only slink away in shame. It opens with illusions of grandeur and slowly (very slowly) descends into a befuddled mess with a disastrous conclusion that feels a bit like a Monty Python sketch targeting Rosemary's Baby might have.