A chilling and perplexing horror assault on the senses, Hereditary features director Ari Aster take on familiar horror genre tropes and twist them into a unique and macabre tale of terror innovative in style and execution.

An identifying factor in horror movies is that they often use the same tropes and story beats. The skill is how to do something fresh with them. Such is the case in Hereditary. The debut feature film from writer/director Ari Aster, Hereditary follows in the ground-breaking footsteps of Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist and The Omen before it. Yet despite familiarities, Hereditary achieves the feat of being altogether different in structure and tone.

The film stars Toni Collette as Annie Graham, artist of award winning miniatures, wife to Steve (Gabriel Byrne), and mother to Peter (Alex Wolff) and Charlie (Milly Shapiro). When her emotionally manipulative mother passes away, a grief-stricken Annie notices strange occurrences in her home, especially with the cripplingly shy Charlie.

To say anymore would give away too much of a film that needs to be experiences and, yes, even admired. Many horror films of dubious quality dealing with things supernatural and demonic are released every year (the after-effects of the Paranormal Activity phenomenon). Hereditary is not to be lumped in with such dregs. Much like William Peter Blatty and William Friedkin did with The Exorcist, Aster masterfully structures his film to creep towards its horrific components on the strength of its drama, creating the emotional stakes needed to make its shocking, mind-numbing moments of horror brilliance that much more powerful.

Key to this are great performances, and Hereditary is filled with them. This is especially so from Toni Collette, who delivers one of her best turns as a mother racked with guilt, grief, and a touch of madness. It takes considerable skill to play a role that requires such gigantic swings of emotion, yet Collette does so with heartbreaking, terrifying power.

There is no doubt that Aster is a fan of the films upon which Hereditary derives inspiration and indeed comparisons too. Yet rather than playing slave to homage, Aster wisely and skilfully has created a horror classic of his own, drenched in dread, brimming with intensity, and sure to haunt the souls of those brave enough to watch.