Movie Review (Hereditary)

I have heard quite a lot of things about this movie, for better or for worse, and finally watched Ari Aster’s debut feature. I am a fan fan of the horror genre, although I get scared easily myself. However, with my friend’s high praise of this film, I finally sat down and watched it with them. Right away I liked Aster’s style and it definitely elevated the movie. He uses interesting and sometimes unconventional shots which creates a sense of uncomfortableness that adds to the horror. However, his captivating and suspenseful direction can only help the narrative so much. I’ll give this movie credit, it was very scary and uncomfortable. But it was not much more than that. There was a real lack of depth within the characters and the narrative in general. It just was scary scene after scary scene and it was truly scary, and it came off naturally. But it really just lacked depth and conflict which really makes horror movies special. It just didn’t truly move me besides me being scared. It played too much into the horror movie tropes and didn’t offer anything truly special. Nonetheless, it still scared me and was better than most modern horror movies and therefore earns a 3/5. I just didn’t really offer anything special that other horror movies have provided.