Parents' Guide to Hereditary

This clammy, creeping horror movie is deeply rooted in classics from the 1960s, '70s, and beyond, but it also builds on them; it's deliberate and severe, and it's not afraid to cross a line or two. The feature writing and directing debut of Ari Aster, Hereditary draws from movies as far back as Rosemary's Baby and as recent as Poltergeist, with elements like ghosts, cults, and resurrections, but it uses them for inspiration only. Aster isn't interested in merely referencing. He goes deeper into things that are unsettling and uncontrollable. His camera continually draws back for a wider, more cathedral-like picture, allowing for more dire possibilities in each frame. Thanks to this -- and to Annie's freaky miniature models -- nightmares and so-called reality blur easily.

The movie's music and sound design (listen for that tongue click) are likewise chilling, recalling the throbbing, humming soundtracks of David Lynch's films but still effective. Yet it's the performances that finally sell Hereditary, notably Collette in a truly tormented turn. Annie is unsure of what's going on or what's real; she's stuck in a loop of shock and panic. Wolff is also appealing playing a more relatable type of terror, sitting at his desk at school, sleep-drained and wide-eyed. Unfortunately, Byrne is stuck in one of those nonbeliever roles, asked to grow angrily impatient at all the supernatural "nonsense" going on, but the movie doesn't suffer for it. Hereditary is a deeply unnerving experience, one that hard-core horror fans will eagerly drink in.