Monday, June 18, 2018

Hereditary

I saw Hereditary at the Sundance Film Festival this year and I thought it was incredibly disturbing and one of the scariest films I had ever seen.  I screamed out loud during two different scenes and I was not alone.  I had decided that I would not see this again when it had a wider release but, given the divisive response to it, I wanted to see if I had the same reaction upon a second viewing.  I saw it late Friday night in a theater by myself and, needless to say, I was scared out of my mind.  I even screamed out loud once again even though I knew what was coming.  A woman with a long history of mental illness and a penchant for dabbling in the occult dies which has a profound effect on her daughter Annie (Toni Collette).  Annie's distress, in turn, begins to have a devastating effect upon her husband Steve (Gabriel Byrne), son Peter (Alex Wolff), and daughter Charlie (Milly Shapiro).  As events become more and more bizarre, the audience is left to wonder if Annie is descending into madness and causing all of these events or if the family is truly being haunted.  When I watched the film the first time I found the final resolution to be deeply upsetting but I realize now that it is not the subject matter that makes this film so scary.  Rather, it is the sense of unease that is created through the sound design, lighting, and spellbinding performances (especially by Collette).  I was incredibly tense almost from the beginning of the film and that tension never lets up.  You want to know what is happening but you dread finding out.  This film is actually quite brilliant...but deeply disturbing so see it at your own risk (preferably not late at night in an empty theater).

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