Ari Aster’s Hereditary is a solid feature directorial debut that gets under your skin

Ari Aster’s feature directorial debut Hereditary has been getting a fair amount of attention from critics who have already seen it, many of whom have been lauding it; some have called it one of the best horrors ever.

As exciting as this is for fans of the horror genre, it’s also somewhat of a problem. Eager filmgoers who have seen this critical praise will go into auditoriums with such high expectations that they may feel a little disappointed.

Fear is also subjective. Whilst some viewers might be chilled to the bone by the subjects of grief and getting old, others might prefer to be rattled by a monster leaping into shot.

Could it be, then, that horror is one of the most difficult genres to perfect in modern cinema? And what makes a horror movie a classic? Hitchcock produced many of them, John Carpenter too. But we shouldn’t ignore the plentiful supply of superb horror movies over the last decade or so: Tomas Alfredson’s chilling Let The Right One In, Julia Ducournaus’s hauntingly brutal Raw, and more recently John Krasinski’s nerve-wracking A Quiet Place.

There is an oh-so-familiar disquiet of grumbling that can be overheard in groups of old school genre enthusiasts where they scoff at popcorn hits such as The Conjuring and Insidious. Usually the main gripe is that the films just aren’t scary enough. Some say the conveyer belt of found footage disasters (namely Paranormal Activity) discouraged many from participating in much of modern dark cinema because there are only so many jump scares you can withstand before they become a bit tedious.

Horror is by no means a rotting carcass: 2018 is already shaping up to be a brilliant year for film releases. Only yesterday, Blumhouse released their much anticipated trailer for David Gordon Green’s Halloween (which surfaces in October, natch), and Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino’s remake of Dario Argento’s Suspiria – starring Tilda Swinton – is also unleashed later in the year.

Whilst not all horror remakes are particularly bad, they are sometime a bit pointless. Carrie, A Nightmare On Elm Street and Psycho have all proved this to be the case. So unless filmmakers produce film pieces that are both terrifying and unique, the genre can often fall flat. But with such a strong back catalogue of films such as William Friedkin’s The Exorcist, and Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, is it proving too difficult to come up with a modern chiller that is as particular as it is effective?

Fortunately, Ari Aster’s new shocker Hereditary brings a fresh sense of intelligence to mainstream scary movies that has been long overdue. The film follows a family that begins to be haunted following the death of their reclusive grandmother. A big surprise of the movie is that you might not be able to predict where it ends up after its 127 minute run. With a brilliantly assembled cast, striking cinematography, and some eerie set pieces, the film well and truly gets under the skin.

Hereditary opens in the UK on June 15 | More about Boys On Film