Robert’s review published on Letterboxd:
A lot of Hereditary is off. The "new faces" at the mother's funeral; the smiles whereupon her casket's brought down; the sleepwalking and the relationship it ruined; the ghastly mental apparitions; the Iphigenian sacrifice, and so on. Ari Aster certainly is patient enough for the aforementioned set pieces, but the eagerness to unnerve superposes the patience game as the film wears on, and wholly supplants it by the first knockings of the third half. Hereditary is a what-if than most anything; it's a sensible exhibit of potential on Ari Aster's side, but the showboating becomes a tad ostentatious, if not also miffing in how many pastels are tried to be brought onto the drawing board, late on. It's clear that Aster tried to make amends for the otherwise calculated, lucid storytelling that occurred in the earlier stages - but why? He seemingly had to find a resolution to the tipping point, but oversaturating the element of surprise does come back to haunt the film. It almost becomes comical in how steep the departure is from one minute to the next, while also additionally seeming downright amateurish in how you could slice this film down the middle, and have two completely unrecognizable samples of the same movie.
Some spoilers follow.
Collette's rendition of Annie is one for the ages, though. Such a thumping, emphatic display of motherhood and its setbacks. Her wailings & recedence to insanity are what's most unnerving. Also disquieting is the fact that, for the entirety of her standing in the film, the little girl is possessed by Paimon - being "grandma's favourite" certainly comes with its territory. A stark contrast, amidst all things, delineates the mother-son relationship: heed the verbal sparrings between Annie & her son, and then take in the scene where she's banging her head against the wood of the attic & he's urging her to stop "Mommy, stop that!". The loss of sanity that Aster prods at is underpinned by a supernatural theme that isn't badly put together, but their espousal leaves to be desired. A supernatural overture & initially affable acquaintances remind of Rosemary's Baby, and the window-jumping certainly harks back on The Exorcist; plus the epilogue is very reminiscent of Ben Wheatley's Kill List. Such is life: as Hereditary's inspirations do show. And so does Aster's creation, quite honestly.