Hereditary Analysis

 Hereditary (2018)

Written and Directed by: Ari Aster
Starring: Tony Collette, Alex Wolff
Featured in Bong Joon-ho's list of 30 best films of all time recently. 
Streaming on Netflix. 

The film has a terrific inciting incident, the daughter of a family dies in an accident which is indirectly caused by her brother and her mother. The film is about them dealing with the guilt of being indirectly responsible for her death, and it flows even without the supernatural element - because the trauma and the paranoia totally makes sense even without it. The way the inciting incident is constructed is terrific, there is a lot of tension that builds up to the event, and there is a lot of tension that it carries even after the scene and then there is a terrifying reveal - which is not a jump scare, it emotionally shatters us. The first cut of the film was apparently 3 hours, which was filled with a lot of conversations among the family. The cast members look at it as a family drama, more than as a horror film. Ari Aster says that this film is about suffering, and it slowly transforms into a nightmare of a movie. This goes well with the saying that 'a great horror film works even without the horror elements or the jump scares' although a terrific jump scare would any day be like a cherry on the cake for a good horror film. 

I really like Ari Aster's style of how he creates horror irrespective of our understanding of the tone of certain visuals. For example, in this film, we see Peter in his college, among a bunch of kids, and that shot seems like it's out of a coming of age film, but with Aster's usage of music, and the context of the film - it becomes creepy. Even Midsommar, the bright visuals never seem like it'd be a horror film. The acting of Tony and Alex was so good, their reactions to the horrific events were making the film even more scary. Joan was also so creepy, her niceness and her compassion was adding to the horror. This film wasn't as high on style, as Midsommar was, but yet this is a film which is strong on style compared to the usual horror films that we see.