Hereditary (2018)

In this article, we will be looking at 2019’s book “1001 Movies to See Before You Die” and going through each film in a random order that I have chosen. We will be looking at what constitutes this film to be on the list and whether I think this film deserves to be here at all. I want to make perfectly clear that I won’t be revealing details from this book such as analyses by film reporters who have written about the film in question, so if you want the book itself you’ll have to buy it. But I will be covering the book’s suggestions on which films should be your top priority. I wouldn’t doubt for a second that everyone reading this article has probably watched many of these movies anyway. But we are just here to have a bit of fun. We’re going to not just look at whether it should be on this list but we’re also going to look at why the film has such a legacy at all. Remember, this is the 2019 version of the book and so, films like “Joker” will not be featured in this book and any film that came out in 2020 (and if we get there, in 2021). So strap in and if you have your own suggestions then don’t hesitate to email me using the address in my bio. Let’s get on with it then.

Hereditary (2018) dir. by Ari Aster

Now I have watched this film a few times and each time I watch it, I get a little bit more impressed. If I am going to be perfectly honest with you, my favourite Ari Aster film is still “Midsommar” which came out the following year. But I think that “Hereditary” was definitely a good starting point to transfer from short film to feature length film for Ari Aster.

It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in late January of that year and then was fully released to the USA public in June, managing around seventy million dollars worth of profit, it earned a grand total of eighty million dollars on a ten million dollar budget.

With a favourable rating from Rotten Tomatoes, the critics’ consensus states that:

"Hereditary uses its classic setup as the framework for a harrowing, uncommonly unsettling horror film whose cold touch lingers long beyond the closing credits.”

Peter Travers who was writing for Rolling Stone Magazine gave it three and a half stars out of four and called it the scariest movie of its year. He stated in his review:

"...it's Collette, giving the performance of her career, who takes us inside Annie's breakdown in flesh and spirit and shatters what's left of our nerves. Her tour de force bristles with provocations that for sure will keep you up nights. But first, you'll scream your bloody head off.”

The AV Club also weighed in on the movie with A.A Dowd stating that that film garnered an A Minus for being pretty darn good. The AV Club review states:

"In its seriousness and hair-raising craftsmanship, Hereditary belongs to a proud genre lineage, a legacy that stretches back to the towering touchstones of American horror, unholy prestige-zeitgeist classics like The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby. Remarkably, it's a first feature, the auspicious debut of writer-director Ari Aster, whose acclaimed, disturbing short films were all leading, like a tunnel into the underworld, to this bleak vision.”

Be that as it may, many people including myself felt that at the time of its release, “Hereditary” was very much overhyped in its scare factor and instead relied on its darkening atmosphere and conceptual fright until maybe the last fifteen to twenty minutes of the movie. Though it won big during many critics’ choice awards, many cite that the audience and critics discrepancy in opinion is mostly down to the fact that many of the common moviegoers were not as impressed with the conceptual scare factor. Many did not understand upon first watch, what the entire movie was about and let us be perfectly honest here, any chance that the movie had to scare you kind of wears off after the first watch anyway. This was possibly the reason for the difference in opinion.

All in all, Toni Collette was robbed of the Best Actress Oscar for that year. Let's leave it at that.