Hereditary

 Review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

    I want to start this review off by saying that I review movies based on how well they can portray/invoke the the emotion that they want the audience to experience.

    Because this was one of the most miserable movies I have ever watched and it was impeccable.  Hereditary spends most of its run time being a melancholic drama, focusing on how the family is grieving the loss of two family members.  For the most part, it's just beautifully acted grief, showing the gut wrenching pain of loss and the confusing feelings that follow after.  It deals with familial trauma, and you can feel the tension between the family members through the screen and it's so claustrophobic in a way.  It makes you so uncomfortable.  I also loved how present the father was.  I feel like in horror movies, the dad is always distant and his ignorance ends up hurting the whole family.  (The Shining, Insidious, and The Haunting of Hill House, I'm looking at you).  However, in this movie, while the dad doesn't believe in the paranormal things happening in the house, it comes from a place of love for his son.  He's a present father.  He's the emotional anchor of the family, being a psychologist and all.  He checks in on all of his family while they're experiencing grief, he tries to keep them together.  When Peter, the son, has multiple mental breakdowns, he's the one who goes to pick him up.  He comforts his son when the paranormal things get too real.  I LOVE the dad in this movie.

    Another thing I love about this movie is how lovable the whole family is.  They aren't just douchebags waiting to be killed.  They're smart and kind, and you can understand all of their actions.  Annie, the mom, is processing the grief of losing her child, while also processing her anger towards Peter for causing the accident, while also processing her (lack of) grief of losing her mother.  Her grief spirals into using a seance to talk to her daughter, which causes her go to crazy.  Peter is dealing with the guilt of killing his sister, while dealing with being haunted by her, and watching his mom lose her sanity and the world go to shit.  Steve, the dad, is trying to keep his wife and son from losing their minds, while keeping it together for them.  However, all three of their struggles clash and create tension, causing Annie to deliver one of the best monologues I have ever heard.  She finally explodes in anger with how she had to organize the funeral for her own daughter, her anger towards Peter, the way her family treats her like she is crazy, and how the world feels like it is constantly blaming her for everything.  It was the most impactful thing I've ever heard.

    I also loved how the horror element of the movie was so subtle.  The horror comes from the family processing their grief.  Annie sees shadows of her mom and cultists in the dark, creating a sense of uneasiness throughout the movie, as the audience begins feeling uneasy over every dark room in the house.  Peter is haunted by reminders of his sister.  He sees shadows of her head falling off, he hears his sister's signature vocal stim of clucking, and he has nightmares of his mom killing him.  The horror of the movie is just so well done.  You need the context of the movie for the movie to be scary.  When Annie becomes fully possessed by the ghost of Pamon and she kickstarts the horrific Act 3 of the movie, I love the use of visual and audio effects.  When Annie cuts her head of with a piano wire, the goriness intensifies just through audio, as she starts cutting her head faster and faster until the sound lets us know that she finished, just with a thud.  The horror is so subtle and quiet but it's so good.  I also love the horror in this movie because it's so unexpected.  They weren't cheap jump scares or gallons of blood.  You have to watch the movie to understand it, because the horror comes from understanding the story.  The horror felt new and perfectly in place.

    I truly think that this is one of the best horror movies to exist: the ending id violent and gory, the characters are loveable, and the audio horror and emotionals are phenomenal.  10/10, highly recommend.