Hereditary Review

R: Horror violence, disturbing images, language, drug use and brief graphic nudityA24, PalmStar Media, Finch Entertainment, Windy Hill Pictures2 Hrs and 7 MinutesDir/Writer: Ari AsterCast: Toni Collette, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro, Ann Dowd, Gabriel ByrneFrom the director of that weird ass short film  “The Strange Things About the Johnsons”...
… comes his first weird ass feature film which may be one of the most originally disturbing psychological thrillers of the year. Ari Aster may have a thing for disturbing dysfunctional families and this movie fully proves that.
When Ellen, the matriarch of the Graham family, passes away, her daughter’s family begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry. The more they discover, the more they find themselves trying to outrun the sinister fate they seem to have inherited.THE GOOD“Hereditary” is director Ari Aster’s directorial debut and boy does he make his mark through his writing and his direction. Aster cleverly plays of foreshadowing early on in the story that when something major happens later on in a unpredictable sense, you’re enticed to how the rest of the movie plays out. Then, with his direction, Aster visually captures brilliant imagery that ranges from mesmerizing to fucking disturbing. This may be a psychological thriller, but “Hereditary” features some of the most unsettling imagery of the year that triggers stuff of nightmares.One of the best frameworks that caught my eye was how the film opens on a wide shot of a dollhouse and pans out into a zoom of the room where the story begins. Then, the characters walk into the room off the scale as if they were miniature dolls. The first “Paddington” did this (arguably more effective), but little tricks like that are entrancing.The cast delivers decent performances, but “Hereditary” primarily lies on the shoulders of Toni Collette's performance. She is a powerhouse in this movie to an extent that I will  start my campaign for her receiving a Best Actress nomination in 3, 2,
Because of the majority of the mystery is followed through her character of Annie, who is the only person that expresses the craziness occuring in her family, Collette is the one who has to command every scene, and she does. The majority of the narrative is focused on Annie as she processes grief and feels resentment towards her family because of that one event.THE BADA24 does a great job with marketing their features, but I feel like somehow some elements of the film should’ve been in the trailer. In the beginning of the second act, a huge shift occurs that turns the overall story into an entirely different movie. If they revealed one of the twists that occurs in the second act to market the film, then you would have a better idea of what the story is about. The shift adds an emotional depth to the story and furthers the plot and the insanity of the supernatural elements Annie experiences.THE RENDYAs much as psychological thrillers are far from my cup of tea (but still effectively hit me time and time again) I can’t fault this film for it’s unsettling aura, for Aster’s script is really tightly written. The foreshadowing and how it plays into the third act all works so good. The climax does become a gory spookfest that’s bizarre as hell, but when it reveals what it is all about, you’ll either love it, hate it, or go ????LAST STATEMENT“Hereditary” may not be what you expect based off the trailers you see, but for what it's worth, the disturbing imagery and outstanding performance by Toni Collette gives this supernatural drama a recommended watch.Rating: 3.5/5 | 77%Super Scene: Annie breaks on her son Peter