Hereditary

Rating: R

Hereditary at times is as creepy as it promises with first time feature director, Ari Aster, delivering a film that for the most part is brilliantly terrifying.

Unfortunately its potential ended up overshadowed by the jarring overuse of the occult leading this thriller into a disturbing horror that went too far.

Aster ends up trying too hard to pay homage to, not just one, but all the past thriller and horror films that have shaped this genre over the years. Resulting in a clash of multiple styles that spend the film fighting for dominance.

Starting so well, the family dynamics are set up in subtle creepy ways leaving me on the edge of my seat from the disturbing dysfunction. Soon though the clash of styles forced the film into a messy and chaotic direction. Ultimately going too far in its desire to be disturbing losing all of its subtly and instead relying too heavily on shock images to try and create scary moments.

To Aster’s credit there were moments of pure genius and most of the cast were brilliant, giving sometimes scary and sometimes gut wrenching performances. Alex Wolff in particular shone as the oldest son Peter, committing to every scene fearlessly no matter how outrageous.

Ultimately though the conflicting styles, occasionally clunky dialogue and how completely needlessly it delved into the occult, Hereditary left me disappointed in a film that had so much potential at the beginning but fell apart so completely at the end.