what makes the movie so satisfying is that while it turns steadily into a batshit-crazy collision of the supernatural and the classically mythological, the family dynamic remains firmly in play
this isn't a scary movie. It's pure emotional terrorism, gripping you with real horror, the unspeakable kind, and then imbuing the supernatural stuff with those feelings. Amazingly confident for a debut feature, Hereditary is first-class genre filmmaking
no ghost story is ever entirely new, but Ari Aster, writing and directing his first feature, has told the tale of a family wracked by psychological damage in which the ghosts are more than "metaphors", and they aren't just there to goose you
Ari Aster's first feature culls from a tradition of slick, elegant genre filmmaking, making up what it lacks in originality with an impressive volume of atmospheric dread
a spooky, hypnotic film that feels like the culmination of the last 50 years of horror... Aster's film grabs viewers with a trance-like spell, showing us spirits and ghosts that feel all too real and unlike anything we've seen before
a harrowing story of unthinkable family tragedy that veers into the realm of the supernatural, Hereditary takes its place as a new generation's The Exorcist