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Hereditary
****
Dir: Ari Aster
Starring: Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne
(USA, 18, 2hr 6mins)
An existential horror film that twists the gut and surprises and unsettles at every turn of its dread-inducing running time, Hereditary is a classy, uncomfortable experience with a fantastic central performance from Toni Collette.
Collette plays Annie Graham, a conceptual artist who makes creepy tiny dolls that she poses in scenes from her own life. There is another macabre presence that is present in her life however – her sick mother Ellen, for whom she has cared, dies at the outset of the film, opening up a massive can of potentially supernatural worms. Husband Gabriel Byrne and spliff-smoking teenage son Alex Wolff don’t know how to deal with the grief and the madness that the mother’s death unleashes. Then there’s daughter Charlie, played with discomforting sociopathy by Milly Shapiro, whose head cocks and tongue clucks with disturbing oddness.
Creepiness builds, along with occult symbolism and séances, with Ann Dowd’s upbeat psychic becoming embroiled in the proceedings. Dowd brings some welcome levity to the film’s suffocating sense of doom; this family is very much cursed.
The film is reliant on twists and jaw-dropping reveals so to give away too much more would spoil the proceedings. Dread is ever present, superbly conjured by debut writer/director Ari Aster who acknowledges the likes of Don’t Look Now, The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby as the film’s chilling influences.
It’s the slow descent into utter claustrophobic terror that swamps the film, making it a very hard experience to shake off. Writer/director Aster has arrived on the scene with a confident shocker that definitely and defiantly scares but is also unafraid to allow time for character. This isn’t about jump scares, it’s about grief and inheritance. Collette’s performance is unhinged and incendiary, at times painful to watch as she plunges deeper into her family history. Hereditary is admirably, truly horrific.
words Keiron Self