Hereditary is catnip for fans of slow-burn horror movies

Enlarge / Creepy kid is creepy. (credit: A24)

Every summer, stowed between the latest sequel to ComicBook Man Saves Everything and Johnny Depp Fights Special FX, Hollywood tries to sneak at least one interesting horror film into cineplexes. This week, we get Hereditary, a brilliant (and rare) mid-summer take on the slow-burn horror genre.

What, exactly, constitutes a slow-burn horror film? These employ the magic of cinema to turn everyday objects and activities into the most dread-inducing things you've ever seen. How? You can't put your finger on it, but there's a deep wrongness to what should be mundane. What viewers like me want is an ordinary house rendered unsettling through sound design and dissonant music. We want something banal like handwashing made threatening because of a camera angle. We want a casual stroll down a normal corridor to feel downright Satanic because of the lighting.

Hereditary's got allllllll that good stuff.

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