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Ultra HD : Recommended
Ranking:
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Release Date: September 4th, 2018 Movie Release Year: 2018

Hereditary - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Overview -

Writer-director Ari Aster makes his feature-length directorial debut in Hereditary, an exceptionally masterful horror film demonstrating Aster as a highly promising talent. Starring Toni Collette in arguably the greatest performance of her career, the story of a family teetering on the brink of insanity after a tragic loss is ultimately a drama at heart immersed in a palpably-thick atmosphere of apprehension and dread that slowly unfolds to a spine-chilling conclusion. The nightmarish family tragedy haunts 4K Ultra HD with a gorgeous Dolby Vision HDR presentation and creepily immersive DTS-HD MA soundtrack. Although supplements are disappointingly lacking, the overall package is Recommended for passionately dedicated horror-hounds and those hungry for more 4K HDR goodness. We've also reviewed this movie on Blu-ray.

When Ellen, the matriarch of the Graham family, passes away, her daughter's family begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry. The more they discover, the more they find themselves trying to outrun the sinister fate they seem to have inherited. Making his feature debut, writer-director Ari Aster unleashes a nightmare vision of a domestic breakdown that exhibits the craft and precision of a nascent auteur, transforming a familial tragedy into something ominous and deeply disquieting, and pushing the horror movie into chilling new terrain with its shattering portrait of heritage gone to hell.

OVERALL:
Recommended
Rating Breakdown
STORY
VIDEO
AUDIO
SPECIAL FEATURES
Tech Specs & Release Details
Technical Specs:
Two-Disc UHD Combo Pack, UHD-100 Triple-Layer Disc / BD-50 Dual-Layer Disc, Region Free (UHD Only)
Video Resolution/Codec:
2160p HEVC/H.265, Dolby Vision, HDR10
Length:
127
Aspect Ratio(s):
2.00:1
Audio Formats:
English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Subtitles/Captions:
English SDH, Spanish
Special Features:
Digital HD Copy
Release Date:
September 4th, 2018

Storyline: Our Reviewer's Take

Ranking:

About half an hour into Hereditary, we arrive at the catalyst of the story, a dreadfully shocking and tragic incident inciting this exceptionally masterful horror film into action. And I was completely sold, immediately sucked into this terrifying world oozing in ambiguity and an unexplained chilling ambiance. Part of what makes this scene so immensely impressive is the rapid turn of events, how terrifyingly quick a seemingly normal high school party can spiral unexpectedly out of control and into disaster. The other, and most important, part is writer-director Ari Aster's talent behind the camera, keeping audiences glued to their chairs while still tightly gripping the armrest, appalled by what they've just witnessed. Immediately after the accident, Aster holds a close-up of 16-year-old Peter (a terrific Alex Wolff) in a long take, denying us the opportunity to see the ghastly tragedy. Wolff's reaction is remarkable and unbearably realistic, wanting to see but not see at the same time while in a stupor. And we're in a similar position, mouth agape in bated breath, dumbfounded by what just occurred. 

Herein is the heart of the entire production's success, what is at the very core of any good horror film, which we've seen only seldom in the recent mainstream resurgence of the genre. And that is genuine dramatic performances of believable people caught in frighteningly extraordinary circumstances where escape feels nearly impossible. Outside of Wolff's standout portrayal of a traumatized teen on the brink of a mental breakdown, the real highlight is Toni Collette as Peter's mother, Annie, a miniaturist artist wrestling with her own inner demons while grappling to retain her sanity. This is Collette's show, at the center of a family's unraveling after experiencing heartbreaking loss, and she is simply phenomenal, giving the performance of a lifetime. After the death of her secretive, estranged mother, Collette visits a local support group where she delivers a soliloquy detailing the history of her family, one fraught with deep, psychological scars. Granted, it's an ingenious bit of exposition, but more importantly, it's a scene that allows Collette to flex her acting chops before the real fright-fest commences. 

Of course, a case can be made that the horror starts at Annie's mother's funeral where 13-year-old Charlie (a fantastic Milly Shapiro) sees strangers disturbingly smiling at her or doing strange rituals to her grandmother's corpse. But again, this only brings us back to the performances. Making her film debut, Shapiro is far more subtle and reserved, and in that restraint, the young actress promptly gains our sympathies while simultaneously making us feel uneasy about her, especially after scissoring the head of a pigeon. Ceaselessly twiddling her fingers and making kneeling figurines from random junk, Charlie is a socially awkward kid who walks barefoot outside and prefers to sleep in her treehouse, which feels reminiscent of the Baba Yaga, a witch of Slavic folklore. The only person in this damaged family staying afloat is the kids' father Steve (a sadly underused Gabriel Byrne), but even he slowly shows signs of collapsing under the weight of having to deal with a wife who may or may not be going insane, a big chunk of the mystery that carries much of the story before revealing the gruesome reality. 

And frankly, the astonishing beauty of Hereditary is how Aster keeps us engrossed in this thickly congested air of mystery and apprehension, which is the other critically important aspect of a good horror feature, aside from the performances. From the start, the young filmmaker, making his feature-length directorial debut, establishes an anxious-riddled and foreboding mood that steadily swells and expands as the story evolves into a larger, hair-raising puzzle. Even a friendly face like Ann Dowd's Joan, a support group member who tries to comfort Annie, comes with some doubt and suspicion — largely aided by Aster's very subtle clues, of course. But as the story lurches forward, the director turns the screw tighter on the grim and dreary atmosphere, feeling so palpable by the third act that the suspense suddenly shifts to a ghastly, nightmarish phantasmagoria, answering questions as much as leaving us in sickening dismay. The skill and talent behind this masterpiece of modern horror is very promising, leaving passionately dedicated aficionados, like myself, hopeful of the genre's future. 

Vital Disc Stats: The Ultra HD Blu-ray

Lionsgate Home Entertainment and A24 bring Hereditary to 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray as a two-disc combo pack with a flyer for a Digital HD Copy, which can be redeemed via moviesredeem.com or through VUDU but only in HD SDR and HDX with a Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 track. The triple-layered UHD100 disc sits comfortably opposite a Region A locked, BD50 disc inside a black, eco-vortex case with a glossy slipcover. At startup, the disc goes straight to a static menu screen with full-motion clips and music playing in the background.

Video Review

Ranking:

A family's tragic mental breakdown seethes and boils into a nightmare-inducing vision on Ultra-HD with a hair-raisingly gorgeous HEVC H.265 encode. 

Shot entirely on the Arri Alexa camera system, capable of up to 3.4K resolution but later mastered to a 2K digital intermediate, the freshly-minted 4K transfer is sharp with outstanding definition in the threading and stitching of clothing and in the fabric of furniture. Within the first opening moments, viewers will immediately note the tiniest detail, aspect and distinctive feature of the architecture and the materials used for constructing them. The blades of grass, leaves of trees and the thick, rough bark are distinctly apparent even from a distance, and we can clearly make out the grain of the wood in the treehouse. The dense, frizzed hair of the characters is strikingly discrete at all times, and facial complexions are highly revealing with incredible, lifelike textures exposing every pore, wrinkle and negligible blemish in the cast. There are a couple moments that are softer than others and the sharpest edges, like the window blinds, show a mild hint of aliasing, but thankfully, they're not terribly egregious. 

The 2160p video also feels more faithful to the filmmakers' creative intentions, closer to what I remember experiencing in cinemas. Pawel Pogorzelski's stylized cinematography with an attractively restrained contrast gives the movie a dreary, grayish and solemn appeal that suits the subject matter. However, whites are more dynamic and brilliant with an intense radiance in many scenes, such as some articles of clothing and random pieces of paper. Specular highlights are crisper and more resplendent with a tighter, narrower glow around the various light sources, allowing excellent visibility within the brightest spots, yielding a dazzling twinkle in the eyes of the cast and creating a glistening sparkle along metallic edges. Brightness levels are also greatly improved, looking more accurate, fuller and inker in daylight sequences, and at night, blacks are even richer and more velvety with outstanding gradational differences between the various shades. The raven, stygian shadows are slightly darker, obscuring the finer details ever so slightly to mess with our imagination, and they penetrate deep into the screen to provide the unusual 2.00:1 image with appreciable dimensionality. 

Pogorzelski's visionary photography also benefits considerably in Dolby Vision HDR, displaying the same understated and toned down palette as part of the film's gravely somber aesthetic while still delivering a bit more pop. The greens in the surrounding foliage are far more lively and bold, showing a strikingly distinct difference between the bushes, the grass and the leaves of trees. Reds are of a deeper, more crimson shade for the blood and gore while also looking rosier and more animated in other scenes. Due to the teal-orange color grading, which feels more apparent here than in its HD SDR counterpart, nighttime sequences are bathed in an eye-catching balance between dark cyan, ocean blues and golden, honey ambers, creating a creepily supernatural feel throughout. Other secondary hues are equally sumptuous and dramatic, such as the vivid, tiger orange of Charlie's sweater or the cherry browns of the house's wood interiors. Flesh tones appear far more natural and accurate as well, with a lifelike rosiness around the cheeks and a peachy-colored hue that feels appropriate to the climate. (Video Rating: 88/100)

Audio Review

Ranking:

The creepiness of the unknown is made all the more terrifying thanks to a marvelously sinister DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack, the same track shared with its Blu-ray counterpart. While an object-based audio option would have been a much-welcomed upgrade, this track nonetheless delivers a fantastic, tension-filled aural experience sure to creep out viewers. 

Filling the room with a forbidding, ominous air right from the start that never lets up, the design is skillfully inventive in its use of ambient effects discretely and flawlessly panning between the channels. Granted, the sides are mostly reserved for specific, hair-raising moments, such as the tongue-clucking noise or the pages of Charlie's notebook flipping by themselves, but they're employed effectively enough for creating a satisfyingly eerie soundfield. Meanwhile, other atmospherics, like the wind blowing through the trees, birds chirping in the distance and the chatter of school kids, do well in keeping the listener immersed in this macabre world. The lossless mix also lends itself splendidly well to the receiver's Dolby Surround or DTS: Neural:X up-mixing functionality, effortlessly spreading many of those atmospherics into the overheads.

Arguably, the best and most noteworthy aspect is Colin Stetson's disturbingly grim musical score bleeding into all the channels, exhibiting an extensive mid-range with sharp definition and fidelity in the instrumentation. Ironically filling the room with warmth and an impressive sense of presence, background activity smoothly moves across the three front channels effortlessly, generating a highly-engaging and spacious soundstage. At the same time, the dialogue is extraordinarily clear and precise with superb intonation in every dramatic line and sudden burst of hysterics. Most surprising is a robust and occasionally forceful low-end that energizes the room with a subtle ultra-low activity, providing certain visuals with an uneasy, menacing feeling. (Audio Rating: 92/100)

Special Features

Ranking:
  • Cursed: The True Nature of Hereditary (HD, 20 min) - EPK-like piece with cast & crew interviews discussing the plot's themes and production with some BTS footage.
  • Evil in Miniature (HD) - Photo Gallery of the models used throughout the film.
  • Deleted Scenes (HD, 16 min)

Final Thoughts

Writer-director Ari Aster makes his feature-length directorial debut in Hereditary, an exceptionally masterful horror film demonstrating Aster as a highly promising talent. Starring Toni Collette in arguably the greatest performance of her career, the story of a family teetering on the brink of insanity after a tragic loss is ultimately a drama at heart immersed in a palpably-thick atmosphere of apprehension and dread that slowly unfolds to a spine-chilling conclusion. The nightmarish family tragedy haunts 4K Ultra HD with a gorgeous Dolby Vision HDR presentation and creepily immersive DTS-HD MA soundtrack. Although supplements are disappointingly lacking, the overall package is recommended for passionately dedicated horror-hounds and those hungry for more 4K HDR goodness.