(Drivebycuriosity) - Better late then never. I missed "Hereditary" this summer in the cinema theaters but thanks to Netflix I could watch it now on the TV screens (imdb). The rave reviews had stimulated my expectations and the film came up to it.
"Hereditary" is a subtle and slowly developing horror movie about a family in distress. Shortly after Grandma´s funeral bad & strange events happen (this is a spoiler free blog. You can find a synopsis here wikipedia ).
Director Ari Aster, who also wrote the script, created a hypnotic and deeply creepy atmosphere. Even though the film reminded me of Japanese ghost movies, "The Exorcist", "The Shining", "Rosemary´s Baby" and many more horror classics, Aster found his own and original ways and the film stayed all the time strange & surprising. I was impressed by Gabriel Byrne, who performed as increasingly subdued husband, suffering from events & family members he couldn`t understand anymore. Milly Shapiro fascinated as the thirteen years old daughter who seemed to live in a dark world of her one, but I think Toni Collette, who got the most applause by the reviewers, overplayed a bit.
I got mesmerized by the bleak cinematography (Pawel Pogorzelski ). The screen was often almost black, sprinkled with some creepy colors. The movie gained a lot from the very special set design (Brian Lives).
One of the leading characters was an artist and created hyper-realistic dollhouses, which looked like the set and often filled the whole screen, giving the film a surrealist quality. Sometimes I got the impression that the whole story happened just inside these constructions.
The movie works best on the big screen in a dark cinema theater, but the TV version is spooky enough.
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