Starring: Toni Collette, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro, Ann Dowd, Gabriel Byrne
Direction: Ari Aster
I am not really a fan of the horror genre, at least in film. While I devour horror anthologies as books, I mostly stay away from Hollywood horror. I cannot stomach the gore. I tried watching Hannibal series in Netflix but stopped in the middle. (It is not horror. It can be classified as thriller/ mystery genre, with quite a lot of gore)
I genuinely think that there should be a separate genre called horror and another genre for gore. There are a few people who enjoy watching the Wrong & Final Destination series. In my opinion, a genuine horror film should be able to give the chills without resorting to gore.
So, on a personal scale, did Hereditary satisfy my requirements as a horror movie? There are flashes of gore and flashes of chills. With an overdose of demons resulting from watching series like Lucifer, Supernatural etc, adding another name to the Pantheon fails to make an impression.
Where does hereditary fail? It has all the elements or to be exact cliches of horror stories. An isolated house, (either that or a grand mansion is a template), an attic, flashes of gore, jump scares, glimpses of the ghost, quirky characters, seance etc.,
However, the story falls flat in the last few minutes. While it is possible for evil to be terrifying than a ghost, evil in Hereditary is more voodoo-ish. Also, nobody wants to google the name of a demon in the middle of a movie.
A ghost is more relatable. A ghost has been human once and a human can live as a ghost, haunting the memories of his/her loved ones.
The movie also commits a cardinal sin, mostly unseen in horror movies. It ends. A horror movie is not supposed to end. The ghost is supposed to smile at the camera just before the credits roll, leaving the movie open-ended.
Or maybe it is just that I lost the ability to feel any chills with my prolonged nights till 3.00 a.m with a messed up sleep cycle. Maybe Ari Aster could confine his horror movies to the ghost subject.
