Hereditary (2018) - Aster debuts with gut-wrenching horror

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A joyless family gathering in the dark makes up this interest-building poster for Ari Aster's Hereditary

When the grandmother of the Graham family passes away, it brings disturbances to especially her adult daughter, artist Annie, which is worsened by a tragedy.

 

Hereditary is written and directed by debuting New-Yorker master filmmaker Ari Aster (Herman's Cure-All Tonic (2008, short)).

It is a heady, dark horror that establishes its oppressive mood fast, which is then enlarged by the Graham family dynamics, a family that's characterized by different diagnoses, traumas and a widespread lack of happiness.

The film is kept interesting by the cut rate performances: Toni Collette (Velvet Buzzsaw (2019, VoD)) wears a heavy cloak with this character; Gabriel Byrne (Carrie Pilby (2016)) is great as could be expected as her skeptical husband; and Alex Wolff (Dude (2018)) is excellent as their teenage son who goes through heavy trials. The film is stylistically coolly, elegantly observed to raise parallels to the bizarre dollhouse aesthetic of Annie's artworks. SPOILER It helps make Hereditary a mysteriously oriented horror about Satanism, - with enough nightmarish scenes to ruin several nights' sleep.

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 10 mil. $

Box office: 82.8 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 8.28 times its cost)

[Hereditary premiered 21 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 127 minutes. Shooting took place from September - November 2017 in Utah. The film opened #4, behind fellow new release Ocean's 8 and holdover hits Solo: A Star Wars Story and Deadpool 2, to a 13.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 44 mil. $ (53.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 7.3 mil. $ (8.8 %) and Mexico with 3 mil. $ (3.6 %). The film was nominated for 2 Independent Spirit awards, among other honors. Aster returned with Midsommar (2019). Collette returned in Hearts Beat Loud (2018); Byrne in In the Cloud (2018); and Wolff in Dude (2018). Hereditary is certified fresh at 90 % with an 8.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

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