This is a horror masterpiece in my opinion.
Like Jordan Peele with Get Out, Ari Aster makes his directorial debut with this film and he does an incredible job. There’s a lot of hidden details and foreshadowing throughout this film, and you can really see how much work he put into it.
I think that the aspect I like the most about Hereditary is that for most of the runtime, it doesn’t really feel like a horror film. The plot is more about a family dealing with grief and trauma. However, the horror elements work alongside these themes brilliantly and they’re really effective at terrifying the audience. The film relies on as little jump scares as possible, with the majority of the horror stemming from weird and disturbing imagery, Pawel Pogorzelski’s slow, yet impressive camerawork, and the stellar acting from the film’s cast. Colin Stetson’s score is also haunting and fills me with dread whenever I hear it in the film. Another thing to mention would be the sound design as this is excellent.
The performances in this film are some of the best I’ve seen from the horror genre. Toni Collette delivers an Oscar-worthy performance and she definitely should have been nominated by the Academy. Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro and Gabriel Byrne are all amazing as well.
I love this film’s third act, especially the jaw-dropping ending.

Overall, Hereditary is now one of my favourite horror films. It’s an unbelievable directorial debut for Ari Aster and I’m a lot more excited to see his second film, Midsommar.

My score: 10/10