“Hereditary” (2018)

This film is extremely frustrating, because there is quite a lot to like about it, but unfortunately, there’s also a lot to not like. The film’s first half is genius, including one of the best scenes of the year. But the film’s second half simply isn’t. It just winds up morphing from a haunting film about guilt and death into a generic ghost story. I didn’t find any of the scenes in the second half frightening in the slightest, I thought the ending was silly and stupid, and the film goes out of its way to explain every little thing that’s going on, completely stripping away the mystery, and therefore fright. Still worth watching for the stuff that does work, but it’s not great.

Rating: 3/5