Hereditary
Halloween is fast approaching. The lantern gives an honest review about the horror film Hereditary.
This unnerving, psychological horror film explores how a woman’s life begins to unravel after the death of her mother. Hereditary begins by narrowing in on a dollhouse, which seamlessly transforms into a teenage boy’s bedroom. In the next scene, a funeral is taking place, and a girl is drawing peculiar pictures and making clicking noises with her tongue that will haunt viewers long after they’ve watched the movie. This same girl continues to have an unnatural disturbance about her as she chops off the head of a bird that flies into the window in a bloody fashion and then keeps it as a trinket. Although the overall plot is difficult to explain, the whole movie follows a family who is walking right into a trap that they created for themselves. Some parts of this movie were very unnerving because there would be moments when nothing was happening. For example, a character would be sitting in the dark while someone not visible was screaming uncontrollably which left viewers with an unsettling feeling.
Strange unsettling occurrences like clicking noises and bugs continue to take place and appear to be repetitive. An interesting aspect of this movie is that not only does it keep people guessing, but it also keeps parts of the plot a mystery. This can completely throw off the viewers. Some occurrences come without any dialogue at all and viewers just have to guess what each one is linked to. It seemed like there were multiple plots in this movie as well which leads to the aspect that everything isn’t linked together in the end. Quoting my brother, Sam Shepersky, “I think that too much was happening at once and that they should’ve just stuck to one storyline.”
Overall, I have to say that this movie wasn’t so much horrifying as it was psychotic and downright confusing. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the movie, but I feel like I would have to watch it again just to really comprehend what was going on. The ending left both my brother and I saying, “What the heck just happened?.” Although, one thing I noticed that might help you follow along with the movie is to pay close attention to certain symbols or props. The girl’s drawings at the beginning of the movie are one thing to pay especially close attention to. This movie is pretty gory, so I’d say if you are someone that does not like blood, or does not have a strong stomach, then this movie isn’t for you. Hereditary is rated “R,” which I think is a more than appropriate rating due to all of the adult content, language, and concepts within this movie. It is definitely not a family-friendly film.
Of course the actors and actresses in this movie did a phenomenal job portraying their roles, especially two actors in particular, Alex Wolff and Toni Collette, who played two main roles “Annie” and “Peter”. The way they used their body language and screams more than words in this movie was both captivating and incredible. The actor Alex Wolff actually stated in an interview, “I think I’m suffering from PTSD just from filming this movie. It was very emotionally and physically draining.” The New York Times is even calling Hereditary “The scariest movie of all time.” As a final rating, I give this movie 4 out of 5 stars because it was an interesting, slow-burn type of horror that kept me on the edge of my seat. Hereditary is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before and I recommend it to anyone who loves horror.
Hey I'm Emma! I am a junior, and an A&E writer for the lantern. I love being involved in many activities such as Jazz Choir, Yearbook, Speech, and...