Hereditary (2018)

[Jason]

I'm gonna try to put this board to use. I think it'll be nice if we ever decide to do a review, one member can create a thread for a movie that doesn't exist in the board and we can post them in said thread if we feel up to it. That way reviews don't get lost in the Recently Watched Movies/What Are You Watching threads, and also so a late bloomer to a movie can read the reviews and get a general HMF consensus on how we all feel about it before going in.

My review below is spoiler free.




Hereditary (2018)

I watched the trailer before seeing the movie, it was enticing enough without giving anything away (which is how trailers should always be), so I pretty much went into this one blind. Which is really the way to go. I heard about The Babadook comparison. The movie really isn't much like The Babadook at all. I can understand maybe sharing the same atmosphere, but Hereditary was nowhere near the level of mediocre that The Babadook was. It's a slow burn, but if you allow yourself to not get all fidgety and distracted easily in your seat, it should pay off fairly nicely. I was really drawn in by the acting as the movie progressed. Throughout most of the movie you're not going to be sure of exactly what's going on, which is kind of the point of the movie, in my opinion. The biggest compliment I can give this movie is that while movies of this nature/genre have been done before, it has a unique and unpredictable approach to how it was created. It wasn't such a fucking try-hard like a lot of the horror movies are in the modern day. Just sit back, pay pretty close attention, expect nothing, and I imagine it will be enjoyed by most everyone here.

Official Rating: Approved/10. Give it a shot, for sure.

[Havok]

It's a slow burn for sure, but still an entertaining watch. Very gloomy and depressing for those that don't know what there walking into. I know I heard one person coming out of my screening saying they didn't expect the film to be that way. Not sure if they were expecting a jump scare-a-thon or something that dire. The film creates a great tone and keeps the unsettling atmosphere until the finale. I can almost compare it to The Witch, but in a modern setting. With some various parts from Lovely Molly and The Sentinel tossed in as well. My minor complaint is I wish they didn't spell out everything at final "Reveal" scene. I thought everything made sense and having a character speak out to the audience didn't really need to happen. Just have it silent, only say "Praise" and it would've worked better with a more impactful ending.

[dave626]

It is a very good, fucked up movie. Even did research on King Paimon. Not a demon you want to conjure.

[Reign in Blood]

Enh, I was close to throwing this in the shitter with Rosemary's Baby until the piano wire scene. Towards the end, you're really gonna show a dark shadow leaving Peter's body and the light bulb coming in? Fuck you, this isn't a Spielberg movie.

[Jigsaw]

Given the general length of this review, I think most, if not all, my reviews could go here. I won't flood the board, but screw it, I can throw some here.

I've not seen Hereditary, but I've mostly heard positive things. It'd probably be worth seeking out.

[Tiggnutz]

Hereditary was my number one horror movie of 2018 and a top five movie of any genre from that year.

[DancesWithWerewolves]

Good, but after all these months...still no urge to revisit, and the buzz has been long gone.

[Jigsaw]

My review for this one, which I saw December of 2018.


This movie, which has gotten a decent amount of praise since it's release earlier this year, certainly had a strong sense of tension, suspense, and unease. However, it also seemed to lack some coherence toward the end.

Which isn't to say that there aren't tons of explanations online - I'm sure there are. But the movie needs to stand for itself, and I won't say that I wasn't put off by the route this movie took. It was interesting, but I wanted more explanation than we ever really got.

Much of the movie feels more like a tense and uncomfortable family drama following the death of a family member, and these scenes are done well. When the horror elements begin showing up more, they're also mostly done well. Many leave you guessing exactly where this movie is going (and that's something that's true up toward the end of the film, actually). As for the conclusion, though, I'm not sure I find it all that satisfactory, at least in how it was presented.

The cast was solid throughout, especially Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff, and Toni Collette (and to be fair, these three make up most of the screen-time anyway). Collette's increasingly erratic behaviour as the film goes on is a sight to behold, and for as young as his is, Wolff's performance here is pretty decent (although at times I felt he overacted a bit).

Hereditary is a bit difficult to talk about right now, having just finished it twenty or so minutes ago. I'm still trying to digest some of it. But my first impression is that it seems like the type of movie you'd need to watch again to better appreciate it, and though the tone of the movie is great, and there's an utterly shocking scene relatively early into the film that I applaud, given it's over two hours long, and I wasn't really sold on the conclusion, that's not something I see myself committing to. For now I'd rate this somewhere around average, though it had potential to be more. 7/10.