This is not just a horror movie. This is a movie that explores themes of loss, grief, guilt, family dynamics and so much more.

The credit has to be handed to Ari Aster because he really changed the script on horror movies with this one.

I encourage you all to go on YouTube and watch the A24 trailer for Hereditary. You would think immediately that this Charlie character is the main protagonist or at least her and Annie. So when Charlie gets killed off in the 33rd minute of the movie, it leaves the viewers with this real sense of “I have no idea what’s going to happen next”. Everything you expected going into the movie is now up in the air because turns out you couldn’t even predict who the main characters are! And this is where horror has fallen off massively. It’s all about the next jump scare. There’s almost no unpredictability in horror films these days. Aster is a master at creating true suspense.

Leading on from what I said about building suspense, another thing I love about Ari Aster’s work is the timing of pinnacle events and when to show/ when not to show. Take the beheading of Charlie as the example. When Peter is driving that car and Charlie’s head gets absolutely collected by the pole, Peter pulls to the side of the road. He slowly starts to check his rear view mirror and then stops. He can’t bear to look. Whereas us as the viewers, we love this stuff, this is what horror is these days. Blood and gore and violent images so we really can’t wait to see the aftermath of what’s happened here in the back seat. But what happens? Ari Aster delays, and delays and we see Peter drive back home, get out the car, walk to his bed and then it’s the next day. So we start thinking to ourselves… wow they’re really not going to show us. We hear Toni Collette’s insanely accurate, blood-curdling scream as she finds what’s left of Charlie in the back seat…. And then BANG. A close up of Charlie’s decapitated, mangled head with ants and bugs crawling through every little crevice. THIS IS WHAT YOU CALL A REAL JUMP SCARE. Timing is everything and Aster knows that.

Another one of my favourite scenes in this incredible film comes during the third and final act just as the movie is reaching its crescendo. When Peter awakens after being sent home from school and is looking around because he can sense something evil is near. We as the viewers see Annie crawl across the ceiling in such a creepy, eerie fashion. The decision here to make Annie’s movements completely silent with no score in the background is just one of the many reasons why Aster completely flipped the script on modern horror. Sometimes, using no sound can make things scarier. In contrast, literally two minutes later in the film, we get that intense, psychotic scene where Annie has chased Peter up into the attic and she is banging her head repetitively in an animalistic manner on the attic door. Again, the sound design here is just simply chilling, to this day I’ve never gotten that image out of my head.

This movie is simply a masterpiece! The pacing, the characters, the storyline all of it. The individual performances from Toni Collette and Alex Wolff needs to be heavily commended. 10/10 perfect!