Art House Movie that Certainly Delivers on the Shock Value

Rating: 7/10 (9 July 2019)

I have to say I enjoyed my experience with this film overall; it feels somewhat unique in the style and story structure. The closest comparison I could make would be 1973's The Wicker Man but somehow far more traumatizing as some of the scenes even made me uncomfortable. This coming from someone who has sat through Requiem for a Dream on multiple occasions. Even with all the shocking moments this movie was shot so bright and beautifully that you can almost feel at peace, which is just amazing to say. Acting was superb by everyone with the great balance of humor and drama.
The downside I found was that after the credits rolled it felt a little empty. Maybe I expected more having enjoyed Ari Aster's previous movie, being so deep in family drama but I never cared about the characters as much, like I did in Hereditary. They didn't seem to get the proper amount of depth I thought they would, instead it seems there was more focus on shock value than character development. The other more minor problem was the run time. Coming in at nearly 2h 30 which I have no problem sitting through it just seemed to be a lot of dead time where I was left think to myself "where is this going."
Did I have a good time with this movie, yes. Would I quickly give it a second viewing, no but there is a hesitation just to see if there are clues I missed.