Will “Hereditary” Go On To Be Like “The Shining”?

Thanks to Amazon Prime and its videos, I was finally able to watch Hereditary.

I wanted to see it when it came out, but it got such mixed reviews I decided to save my money and wait.

Although, Lesia, aka the Haunted Librarian, changed my mind with her post, “Should You See Hereditary? (Short Answer: YES).”

I was all set to grab a friend and pull a Ferris Bueller’s day off to go catch it. Sadly, the timing didn’t work out for that to happen.

However, I recently noticed it was available on Prime, so I downloaded it to my Kindle. 2019 has already started out with some jaunts. I knew I’d have plenty of air time to enjoy it. Which I did. On a flight from San Francisco to Midway last week.

Initial Thoughts

So what did I think?

It’s probably one of the better horror movies I’ve seen in a while. (Well, I saw it after seeing Bird Box. Which has definitely raised a new benchmark in horror movie enjoyment. But even with that movie under my belt, I still really liked Hereditary.)

Which surprised me. As I commented on Lesia’s post:

I had my reservations because it was from the same guy who did The Witch, which I still have’t seen because I’ve been waiting to stream it. (A good friend with similar tastes told me I’d be disappointed if I paid theater prices so…that spoke volumes. But then reading Twitter reviews when it came out also gave me a good idea to wait.)

Fact Check

However, now that I’ve had some time to fact check myself, I see I was mistaken. Sort of.

Neither the writer nor the director is “the same guy” from both movies. Ari Aster wrote and directed Hereditary. Robert Eggers wrote and directed The Witch. I’d just heard somewhere that “the same guy” who did the one was part of the other and repeated it without fully understanding it. (My bad.)

There is one man both movies share in common, though: producer Lars Knudsen.

The Witch & Hereditary

Since my initial comment on Lesia’s post, I’ve also had the chance to watch The Witch. That’s another one that got mixed audience reviews, but really good critic reviews. I also ended up liking it.

Yes, the dialogue was a little challenging to understand. I think if I’d seen it in a theater it might’ve diminished my appreciation for the movie.

That’s another upside to waiting to stream movies: subtitles. I did employ them early on. (Luckily I’m okay with reading my way through movies. I know that puts off a lot people so…I can see how this one might never score high with some.)

However, The Witch had great visuals, a decent plot and some freaky scenes. It felt fresh to me. I can say the same about Hereditary.

The Shining’s Connection

But what does all of this have to do with one of the most beloved cult horror movie classics ever, The Shining?

Well, as the Vintage News best explained, when The Shining first came out, it was popular with audiences, but not with critics. (Many have since seen the error of their ways and have changed their judgments.)

Here’s a fun fact:

It was the only one of Kubrick’s last nine films to receive no nominations at all from either the Oscars or Golden Globes but was nominated for a pair of Razzie Awards, including Worst Director and Worst Actress (Duvall), in the first year that award was given.

With time, critics eventually came around. Will that happen with audience-goers who first dismissed Hereditary? If they give it another chance and watch again, will it creep onto their best horror movie list too?

Rating

Even though in her review Lesia said Hereditary is “not a slasher, jump-scare-filled, predictable horror movie” (true), there were a couple of scenes that scared me enough to jump –which ended up scaring the guy in the window seat next to me too. (Good job, Hereditary. Two-fer!)

But one thing Lesia totally nailed: it’s not predictable. I don’t often jump during movies. In fact, I can’t recall the last movie that I did. But the bird in the window scene (of all things) was one to get me. The other was a scene involving the mom, which leads me to this…

Spoiler Alert

Don’t read on if you don’t want to know what happens in the movie (last warning)…

But I do have to say, even though I appreciated the artistry, the acting, the sets, and the visuals, I wasn’t nuts about the direction the movie ultimately went. There were hints early on it was going to involve a cult and maybe Devil-worshipers trying to usher in the anti-Christ’s arrival.

But then Charlie died and it seemed like it’d be more of a haunted house/haunted family supernatural thriller. Then it turned into a full-fledged Devil-worshiping/evil god-invoking cult movie –along with being a freaky drama about family dysfunctionality. (No, that’s not a word, spell checks assures me. Still, I’m using it.)

Didn’t see any of that coming. Wasn’t necessarily crazy about where it went. However, that’s where it did go. I let it take me there. Since everything else was enjoyable, I feel comfortable giving it four out of five skulls.