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Kevin Michael Vance
Writer - Portland, Oregon
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Go Back To Reviews
Title: HEREDITARY
Director: Ari Aster
Year: 2018
Reviewed: July 12, 2018
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Rice Cake-Lowest Rating |
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You know that new horror movie everyone is talking about? It's called "Hereditary". And I saw it.
Here's what Peter Travers of Rolling Stone thinks of the movie: "Hereditary is a new horror landmark that puts a unique face on things that go bump in the night". It got an 89% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.6% on imdb.com.
It's been a few days since watching it and for my part each minute after the viewing has made me less and less enchanted with the film. Until I have finally come to the conclusion that "Hereditary" is nowhere near as compelling as "The Exorcist" (this being the movie everyone is comparing it with) and inevitably sucks. Why does "Hereditary" suck? The worst reason for me is that it is structurally, emotionally, and thematically a carbon copy of a superior film "The Witch"; which came out three years earlier and has a lower rating than "Hereditary". Everything from the isolated home to the outside menace to the one family member that may or may not be crazy to the family members dieing until only one remains to the end where the evil family member is joined by his coven/cult is a copy of "The Witch". This Ari Aster character doesn't even attempt to differentiate his movie from "The Witch". Just replace "The Witch's" effective period motif and then replace the witch with a king of hell and you got "Hereditary".
The tragedy here is Toni Collette, of whom I've always been a fan, is fantastic. She goes to some extreme depths here and she should be applauded for the effort.
The movie is two hours and seven minutes long. Which is about an hour too long. It starts out being a slow burn and ends up being a strangely artsy yawn fest. Then some inexplicable shit happens (like... why did the father burn up when she threw the book into the fire?) and we are left with the schlocky, half hour, trivial, contrite gore fest of an ending. (Yes. Naked old people are scary. I get it.) Honestly, when his mom- now possessed by... who the fuck knows?-scampers across the ceiling like a bad "Insidious" or "Paranormal Activity" gag I nearly burst out laughing. And when the crazy coven/cult placed the rubbery looking crown on the kids head I was literally biting my lip to stop from laughing.
Sad to say, "Hereditary" ain't good. And most importantly, it's not even scary. Do yourself a favor and don't listen to the reviews or your friends... avoid this film. Instead see "The Autopsy of Jane Doe", "The Babadook", "The Devil's Candy", "Occulus" or even the fucking Witch, again. Anything really... is better than sitting through the above tripe.
"Hereditary" gets my lowest review, a RICE CAKE review.
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