Scott Bailey’s review published on Letterboxd:
The more I think about Hereditary, the better I think it is. Hereditary is a very tense film to watch throughout and just beautifully crafted thanks to the exceptional performances, the stunning atmosphere which is never broken by cheap jump scare and the amazing cinematography. If you enjoy filmmaking where is lots of subtle symbolic imagery hidden in plain sight this is an essential watch. Ari Aster is a filmmaker to watch out for and given that this is his debut feature film, he has set an unbelievably high bar for himself.
The opening scene is among my favourite moments at a movie theatre this year, where it opens where you see a room full of minatures where the opening scene transitions making it appear to be happening inside a doll house! This scene is edited together so seamlessly and there are several scenes afterwards there are so many wide shots where the depth of field is so strong it resembles looking at a scene full of minatures. It makes everything feel so small. I found myself focusing heavily on the visuals because every shot feels purposeful. The imagery is simply unforgettable, some shots look horrifying and linger on for an uncomfortable amont of time, others feel like you could just pause the film and frame it, and it wouldn't look out out place in an art gallery. The cinematography is seriously breathtaking.
Toni Collette and Alex Wolff are both oscar worthy in my opinion. Their performances made this film not only an outstanding horror film because of how much they sell all off the terrifying things they go through, but also a compelling drama where you completely buy into the dysfunctional nature of the family. It feels like it comes from a real place. It's hard to truly describe how wonderful these performances without spoiling the story, and I actually want to see this multiple times before going into spoilers because knowing nothing about the plot is a great way to go in. If you like strong character writing with a proper sense of weight and you don't mind a patient build this film has writing like that in spades!
I mentioned earlier that there is absolutely zero cliché jump scares, and the best part about that is it feels completely aware of just how conditioned we all are to these kind of scenes because I genuinely felt like it playfully teases them at certain moments, but instead it just lingers on that scene for before just moving on to next, keeping what you just saw fresh in your mind and maintaining a consistently tense atmosphere. There are scenes where you see things happening in the background and it lingers on it for a long time without the need for a loud noise telling us something is there!
I might not have found it quite as scary as many others have, however I've come to realise that is a personal thing. It doesn't take away from how effective the story is overall and from a filmmaking perspective I absolutely adore this film. I already feel like I need to see it again!