In the back half of the 2010s, one of the best ways for a new filmmaker to display a fresh voice was by making a memorable Horror/Thriller. This is where we were introduced to Jordan Peele (Get Out), Julia Docournau (Raw), John Krasinski (A Quiet Place), Coraline Fargeat (Revenge) and Robert Eggers (The VVitch). M. Night Shyamalan (Split) and Karyn Kusama (The Invitation) re-launched their careers with a more cerebral storytelling that became known as “elevated Horror,” and Ari Aster’s Hereditary was often mentioned in any discussion of this trend. Nearly all of these films have a character going through grief, often over the death of a child, sometimes it’s the death of who they know themselves to be as they become something far more mysterious and perhaps monstrous.
Hereditary isn’t even an easy film to unpack. I’ve seen it three times and am still not sure what Aster’s grand design is. The slow pace pulls you in and then hits you with shocking, sometimes unexplainable events. (This started with the initial marketing, which sold the film on the potentially evil daughter (Milly Shapiro) and her loud tongue clicks.) Aster himself says this isn’t a Horror movie, but if that’s true I think there wouldn’t be so much violence and gruesome imagery. Midsommar is my personal favorite, but with each new release from Aster I find I have another clue to unlocking Hereditary. I just need to get past what an uncomfortable film it is.
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