I just saw the film “Hereditary.” I must say, I was very impressed indeed with what I saw. It’s been a while since I saw a really good horror movie. Well, this is a true contemporary horror movie, which draws as much from the atmosphere of David Lynch and the aesthetics of Wes Anderson as from the influences of earlier classic supernatural horror films like Deep Red, Suspiria, Poltergeist, The Exorcist, The Shining, &c.
It was a spectacularly beautiful movie to look at. The color palette was captivating. The architectural details including the miniature home sculptures and the exquisite Craftsman manor that the family lived in, alone, made the movie worth watching.
The sound design was outstanding - recalling, as I mentioned earlier, David Lynch, with adept use of low and high frequencies to create a soundtrack that was more organic than musical.
For the first half of the movie, I actually thought the film was going to be that exceptionally rare creature: a horror film with neither supernatural elements nor a malevolent villain. Indeed, I think the filmmakers could have actually pulled this off if they had sought to do so. The domestic drama of grieving, mental illness, and harrowing automobile accidents are, frankly, enough to comprise a full-blown horror movie (with the right soundtrack and cinematography) without involving any supernatural force or a person with evil intentions. Sadly, this was not the case here.
But the movie wasn’t much worse off for it. Indeed, the meagre supernatural content was not in sufficient supply as to require the viewer to check his brain at the door. It was far less overbearing, for instance, than the overrated Stranger Things, and was just about at the same level as the far superior German show Dark. (The color palette of the latter is also similar to this movie.)
Overall, I think this is certainly a strong contender for the best horror film of the year, though it may yet be unseated by the offerings this fall.
Has anyone else seen Hereditary and cares to share their opinion of it?