The best horror movie of the year, so far, has arrived, and that is “Hereditary.” This is no jump scare piece of crap; it’s a personal study that heads straight to Hell. You don’t know how lucky you are to have a thriller so riveting.
Toni Collette stars as Annie, a mother and artist, whose mother passed on, and secretly attends a support group, where she admits her mother had mental problems. She has a husband named Steve (Gabriel Byrne), a pothead son named Peter (Alex Wolff), and a daughter named Charlie (Milly Shapiro), who knows her grandmother wanted her to be a boy.
Peter goes to a high school party, and Annie forces Charlie to tag along. She suffers from peanut allergy, and Peter drives her to the hospital, but en route, she sticks her head out the window, and becomes decapitated.
Now, the whole family is devastated, especially Annie. She then meets another widow named Joan (Ann Dowd), who introduces her to a seance group. And when she and her family finally make contact with Annie, well, all Hell breaks loose.
It took me awhile to note the characters and their bios, but the more you watch “Hereditary,” the more horrified you become. Written and directed by Ari Aster, the movie offers us disturbing images, ghoulish moments, and amazing low budget special effects. But that not fully why I loved it.
The acting her is breathtaking. Collette not only gives her best performance since “Little Miss Sunshine,” but I think she gives the best horror movie performance since Shelley Duvall in “The Shining.” She’s angry, sad, and terrified in every way possible. And the most outspoken scene takes place at the dinner table when she screams at Peter about their negative relationship, as well as the responsibility taken about his sister’s death. You just love her words and emotions. This is Oscar-worthy role for her.
Wolff is also utterly amazing, and his emotions here attack you in the right intensity. The way he cries, struggles to process things (I won’t give out spoilers), and finds himself trapped in his mother’s living Hell all cliches it. And you also get some fresh work from Byrne and Dowd, thanks to their dialogue and vulnerability.
And everything else in the movie looks thrilling. They also have ants, rotting corpses, and fire. I know this sounds disturbing, but I’m talking to the horror moths, not the ones who can’t handle it. Again, see this if you want to make changes to your horror movie-going trips.
⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
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