“Hereditary” has lots of mood and surprises but lacks cohesion.

Is it enough for a horror movie to deliver the frights, even if the script doesn’t hold together? “Hereditary”, from filmmaker Ari Aster, is superb at setting an unsettling mood, but its story is just too confounding. The film has shocks that earn screams, yes, but also some unintentional laughs. And Toni Collette’s intensely committed performance goes from a recognizable human being to something closer to Freddy Krueger by the end. This frightener had all the means to become a classic ghost story but instead, it seems to want to be a dozen horror movies as evidenced by its overwrought end. Scares it’s got, but a cogent story still matters more.  Hear more from Scott Markus at WhatsYourGhostStory.com