HEREDITARY

"Get Out" made horror films respectable again, or at least Oscar-friendly again, in a way they hadn't been since "The Exorcist". I've seen Ari Aster's terrific feature debut "Hereditary" compared to "The Exorcist" or at least mentioned in the same sentence. Possession, of a kind, and a grieving mother are the only tenuous links I could make out but like "The Exorcist" I can see "Hereditary" picking up a slew of Oscar nominations next year; Toni Collette is virtually a shoo-in for her magnificent performance as the beleagured mother and it's actually the better film.

Indeed for the first hour or so I wouldn't have called "Hereditary" a 'horror' film at all but a serious and deeply disquieting study of a woman cut off from her family by grief. When it does change midway through the jolt is sudden and hardly subtle but the effect is considerable. If, in the end, this is 'just' another horror film it's still pretty damn scary with the emphasis on jump-in-your-seat scares and a real sense of dread rather than guts and gore. I'm sure there must have been horror films as effective as this or more so since that Exorcist guy did what he had to do to get the devil out of Regan but this is still a superior frightener, very well written and directed by novice Aster and beautifully played by everyone with Collette and Ann Dowd outstanding.

Fans of the genre will find much to savour here though personally I think I would have been happier if the film had stuck to its original path and jettisoned any hint of the supernatural. I enjoyed it hugely; I just didn't take it very seriously nor will I ever listen to Joni Mitchell's song 'Both Sides Now' quite in the same light again.