The Film (5/5)

    Annie (Toni Colette) has just lost her Mother. The two were estranged even though for the last period of her Mother's life they had lived under the same roof with Annie's family, Steve, Annie's counselor husband, Peter her pothead son, and Charlie their youngest daughter who has a series of health issues both mental and physical. Annie takes her Mother's death hard, regardless of the issues they had in life, and seeks grief counseling from a group in secret. At the height of her sadness tragedy strikes the family again in the tragic death of Charlie. This ramps Annie's sadness up to much greater levels, and she begins to act out in desperation, going so far as to hold a seance to reach Charlie. This, of course, causes adverse affects to the family, and their house. 

    I will admit I am to 2 things. I am particular harsh again modern mainstream horror films, as we either get remakes of films that have been done better before or films that rely on elements that have been done better in the past that they are redundant out of the gate. The other thing is I am quite a fan of A24 and their output as a studio. While I haven't seen it all, and haven't been 100% a fan of everything I've seen, at the very least they are trying to do interesting things with their place in cinema right now. As such Hereditary their latest contribution to the horror genre alongside films like Ghost Story, The Killing of a Sacred Deer,  It Comes at Night, and The Witch is another excellent entry.

    The film is the debut feature by director Ari Aster and rarely relies on the jump scares and MTV style razor style editing that has been so popular over the last 2 decades (though some of that is there). Rather, the film at its base is an occult infused domestic drama, that at its center uses an atmosphere of dread at the center of its scares. It goes a few places that most mainstream or American horror films rarely go. It also builds up a mythology around the characters, their backstory, and uses some adapted occult mythology as the backdrop for the story being told.  As such this is a slow-burn sort of horror film that is scary on the first viewing, but offers narrative reveals and rewards on subsequent viewings which I would say are required to fully grasp the film, down to it's controversial (though it should not be) ending.

   Of course, though the film is quite scary. What makes this film work so well are it's performances and we get some truly fantastic ones from such heavy-hitters like Toni Collette (Muriel's Wedding, The Sixth Sense) and Gabriel Byrne who finally gets to make a truly great occult infused horror film after such terrible fare as Stigmata and End of Days. Of course, the direction from newcomer Aster is solid, maintaining an excellent creepy, and dread-infused atmosphere throughout the film, and not leaving the viewer with a single boring moment. If he chooses to continue down the path as a genre director, I am assured that he has a bright future in horror. However, if he decided to sit around and Bergman style chamber dramas, I would eat those up as well.

Audio/Video (5/5)

    Lionsgate presents Hereditary in a very solid 16:9 1080p AVC encoded tranfer that has excellent detail, solid color reproduction, and deep inky blacks. Audio is handled by a DTS-HD MA 5.1 track in English. No issues to report. Everything is well balanced and clear.

Extras (1.5/5)

    There is not much here, but we do get Deleted scenes, some featurette on the backstory of the film, and a photo gallery.

Overall

    Hereditary is a fantastic, and fascinating horror film, and another hit from A24. The Blu-ray looks and sounds fantastic, but has a limited slate of extras (Seriously, this needed at least a commentary). RECOMMENDED.