DVD review: Hereditary

GOOD horror films are few and far between.

Psychological frights that really get under your skin have been mostly replaced by jump scares, gratuitous violence and gore.

But nothing quite prepares you for Hereditary which is as creepy and shocking as it is clever and surprising.

Writer-director Ari Aster's outstanding debut feature is hard to watch for all the right reasons.

Pushing horror into new territory, the film's tone shifts from ominous and disquieting to extremely intense and rarely lets up.

Aster ratchets up the tension with some masterful camera work which builds up the power of suggestion while the droning soundtrack adds to the sense of unease.

And that does not even begin to do justice to Hereditary's story which is excellent both for its subtle complexities and the metaphors that can be read into it.

It is also ripe for repeat viewings for things you might have missed first time after you finally get your head around the dark plot.

Hereditary starts with the death of Ellen, the estranged matriarch of the Graham family.

Despite her uneasy relationship with her mother, this opens up old wounds for Annie (Toni Collette) as her husband (Gabriel Byrne) remains stoic for the sake of their two children Charlie (Milly Shapiro) and Peter (Alex Wolff).

But when Annie begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about her family's ancestry, a nightmarish sequence of events unfolds.

Aster brings out the best from his cast despite a slightly muted performance from Byrne.

Collette is excellent as the deeply distressed Annie while the ever talented Ann Dowd (The Handmaid's Tale/The Leftovers) impresses as Annie's friend Joan in a memorable supporting role.

Young actors Shapiro and Wolff are also superb and some haunting, lingering close-ups of Wolff's character Peter's face at key moments will stay with you for a long time.

RATING: 9/10

DAVID MORGAN

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