- Directed by: Ari Aster
- Genre: Psychological Horror, Supernatural Drama
- Distributed by: A24
- Runtime: 127 minutes
- Starring: Toni Collette, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro, Gabriel Byrne
Hereditary is the debut feature of Ari Aster, and it’s a 2018 psychological horror film. It intricately explores family trauma, grief, and curses, blending emotional devastation with horror. Instead of jump scares and gore, Aster terrifies audiences by revealing the horrors of suppressed emotion, generational dysfunction, and unresolved grief.
This film has been exceptionally chilling and bold, employing stunning acting, vivid imagery, and poetic writing, making viewing it deeply exhausting, yet rewarding.
đź“ť Clean Plot Summary
The story begins with Annie Graham struggling with the loss of her mother, Ellen Leigh, a family member she so desperately tried to estrange herself from, only to result in a never ending cycle of grief. Alongside her teenage son Peter, weirdly quiet daughter Charlie, and husband Steve, Annie is left to figure out the shambles of her life while being possessed with the need to deal with the loss as a sculptor’s model artist.
Soon after Ellen’s funeral, eerie occurrences begin to unfold. After being abruptly disconnected from the family, Charlie takes the tragic family mantle and dies in a horrifying accident, plunging the family even deeper into their spiral of darkness.
Annie has visions which put her into a support group where she meets Joan, who is an enigmatic figure who leads her through a séance. When Annie attempts to reach out to Charlie’s spirit, her mental condition worsens, fusion of supernatural horror and psychological trauma blurs boundaries. Ultimately, it culminates with the revelation of Ellen being a member of a secret cult whose death was the horrifying rite of sacrifice to summon demon Paimon through the Graham family as vessels.
The final act is the most surreal part which captures complete madness, loss, and demonic posession, where Peter becomes the unwitting pawn of the cult’s sinister goals.
🎠Primary Roles
Annie Graham (Toni Collete) – Annie is best portrayed as an emotionally fraught mother struggling to come to terms with the death of her daughter, which happens to make her the emotional core of the film. The movie’s horror in psychological realism, lies in the her slow unraveling driven by guilt.
Peter Graham (Alex Wolff) – Depicted as a detached teenager undergoing a tidal wave of buried emotions, Annie’s son turns out to be suffering deep guilt and fear. A gradual helpless feeling begins to consume him as he realizes forces that have always existed in the background are finally closing in.
Charlie Graham (Milly Shapiro) – Deamatic and strange, Charlie is headstrong yet vulnerable capturing the essence of an innocent child. Everything changes with her death which becomes the currpting point for everything supernatural thereafter.
Steve Graham (Gabriel Byrne) – The reasonable father figure who attempts to maintain balance in the family but slowly begins to unravel as the family unit descends into disorder and mayhem.
Joan (Ann Dowd) – A benefactor who appears to provide aid, but in reality is a mastermind of the cult responsible for the family’s curse.
🎥 Direction and Cinematography
Ari Aster’s direction feels very calculated and atmospheric. Every single shot in Hereditary feels intentional – the camera frequently zooms out, making the characters appear like figurines in Annie’s dolls’ houses – trapped, controlled, and utterly devoid of agency.
The film is shot using long takes and little to no movement of the camera combined with dizzying transitions like moving seamlessly from a miniature world to real life, contributing to the overwhelmingly bleak and suffocating feeling. Cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski uses shadow and light expertly, rendering even bright scenes unsettling.
🎵 Music and Sound Design
The score by Colin Stetson is devoid of anything pleasing and features bass-heavy, droning notes, tense silences, and sudden, startling screams. The soundtrack does not only complement the horror, but also serves as its source. Sound is kept to a minimum, but in the case of the infamously unsettling tongue-click associated with Charlie, it serves as a dreadful motif.
Silence is exploited as a tool in Hereditary’s tension-building during the entirety of the movie, pausing so that the audience’s anxiety can fill the silence. The soundscapes which accompany the final act are indistinguishable and chaotic to the point of overwhelming the senses.
🔍 Themes and Messages
Grief and Trauma – Deep-seated aspects that form not only the core of the movie’s focus, but also serve to underscore poignant elements of emotion in the context of a disease passed down through families. The film explores the ruinous impact of unresolved grief on a family over time.
Fate and Inheritance – As a title, this captures both emotional and spiritual dimensions to inheritance. The pain does not stop here. The family inherits a curse.
Mental Illness vs. Supernatural Horror– Aster entertains the idea of whether Annie is suffering from a mental breakdown or if she is truly dealing with something supernatural. The inflicted horror is knowing the answer is lost.
Loss of Control – The characters can do nothing in the face of events that have already been set in motion. Lives led are puppeteered by forces outside of understanding, be it human or otherwise.
Family Dysfunction – Their emotional disconnection coupled with resentment and secrets forms an intricate web within the family, ensuring that their downfall is not only inevitable, but disturbingly intimate.
🎞Reception and Impact
In the wake of its premier, Hereditary was critically lauded and is now considered one of the most impactful modern horror films of the decade. Collette’s performance, in particular, drew accolades, with a great number of critics remarking that it was Oscar-worthy due to the emotional intensity and range.
There was a distinct dividing line among audiences, with some remaining captivated yet disturbed by the slow-building sense of dread, while others were shaken by the tragic bleakness of the movie and its ambiguous ending. Regardless, there was contemplation surrounding grief, psychological horror, and the shifting face of horror as a whole, ultimately marking Hereditary as a flagship in discussions of the sub-genre.
đź“šReflections and Takeaways
Grief and loss wraps around an individual like a shroud. It can be just as potent as any spirit.
Trauma certainly does not go away, particularly when ignored. Rather, it transforms into something far more sinister.
A family dinner and a quiet bedroom can mask and hide something far more sinister than mere spirits.
The notion of horror can come from the unknown, yet at the same time, derives out of the individual, proving to be the most frightening of the two.
🌟 Final Thoughts
By no means does Hereditary (2018) come off as a typical horror movie. Rather, it is a morbid study of family, fate, and emotional unravelling framed as a horror film. The genre is used to reflect upon forces far more terrifying than mere demons: one’s legacy, mental illness, and the guilt that terror resides within.
Ari Aster’s haunting vision is not only chilling in its horror but also unsettling in its realities. The sense of loss the film delivers is analogous to that of the Graham family, suggesting that the most horrifying beasts we face are the ones passed down to us.
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