Movie Review: Hereditary (2018)

Hereditary (2018) written and directed by Ari Aster

Grandma Ellen dies, leaving a grieving daughter (Toni Collette) and her family. The family is tense and awkward from the loss when another tragedy strikes them. In a desperate attempt to understand what's going on and regain some control over herself and her situation, the daughter seeks help from grief counseling and a very insistent member of the group. She and her family slowly fall apart mentally.

The movie is a great vehicle for Toni Collette, who gives a wide-ranging performance. She is the most believable part of the story. Alex Wolff as the son also gives a solid performance and carries a lot of the film. Their interactions give the movie its humanity. Unfortunately, the dad in the story is not a person so much as a gear in the plot mechanism, moving things forward when he is supposed to. Even though Gabriel Byrne (from The Usual Suspects) plays the dad, he doesn't have enough character to be more than one-dimensional.

The story has some good moments of tension and horror, but not as many as it should. Many bits of it seem lifted from other films and don't make as cohesive a whole as they should. The ending is unconvincing both because it's been in other recent horror films and it doesn't match up with the weird and horrifying elements that lead up to it.

Mildly recommended--without Collette's performance, this would be a straight-to-video or -sreaming low-level B horror movie and not recommended. The strong opening is wasted.