The movie Hereditary was released in 2018 to critical acclaim from horror fans.
Now that it has become more “mainstream,” opinions have been a little more mixed in recent years.
This is logical and a bit of a shame at the same time.
Quick PSA
Beware. If you haven’t seen it yet, take this note as a PSA.
Do not engage if you are not in a good mood. If life already seems like too much right now, this movie will drag you down along with it.
A stacked cast
Created by Ari Aster, who is also behind Midsommar and Eddington, it has an absolutely incredible cast.
Toni Collette transcends her role, far beyond the small part she played in The Sixth Sense. Gabriel Byrne, best known in the horror world for Ghost ship and Stigmata, plays the cliché of the bland husband, who is there without really being there, and who is quickly overwhelmed by the situation. Alex Wolff, who has since starred in Old and A Quiet Place day one, gives a very realistic and moving performance, and Milly Shapiro is truly endearing.
Hereditary has a particularly interesting storyline and is heavily based on family dramas, communication difficulties, mental illness, and grief, which may seem like a lot for someone who was expecting the usual horror jump scares.
The film sets its somber tone from the outset with the grandmother’s funeral, the mother’s therapy sessions, and the unhealthy relationship between the two women. I think it’s safe to say at this point that Ari Aster seems to have a passion for cults, because we encounter this subject regularly in his movies.
I haven’t looked into his childhood, but there may be some grounds to explore there, haha.
A family’s downward spiral
Everything then falls apart and sets the stage for what follows. We move from a fairly typical drama to the unthinkable. The 13-year-old girl is suddenly beheaded in a car accident while her brother is driving. This is the first step of a downward spiral.
In a state of total dissociation, he leaves his sister’s headless body in the car and goes to sleep. His mother discovers it in the early hours of the morning, and from then on, everything goes from bad to worse for the family.
The pace is well crafted, and if you’ve managed to avoid any spoilers prior to watching it, the atrocity of the family’s destruction is truly heartbreaking.
Because yes, everything, right up to the murder of the teenager, had been planned in advance by the grandmother for the arrival of the demon Païmon in their world.
The father is burned alive, the mother decapitates herself with a piano wire, and the son, completely traumatized by the loss of his entire family in such a short time, gives up enough to allow himself to be possessed by the demon.
Despite the extremely violent tone of the repeated gruesome deaths and the revelation of the child’s decomposing head on the altar, I really like the touch of humor in the beheaded mother’s body kneeling in worship of the demon.
hat was a cute little breather in a very dim environment.
Dissociation as a survival tool
It is difficult to talk about this movie without imagining a narrative in which depression is all over the place at every moment. It is filled with phases of rage, lethargy, clouding of the mind, and capitulation.
Peter, the son, would represent personality dissociation. His sadness only seems to find comfort when the false demon took possession of his body, leaving the responsibility for his sister’s murder behind. This is elevated horror at its finest. Everything can be analysed is so many different ways.
Trauma, mental illness, coercion , grief…
On the bright side, they won’t have any generational trauma, I guess ?
Yes, it is a very grim movie.
I’d like to give you a more in-depth analysis of the naked fifty-somethings in the cult, but I’d rather leave that aside for the sake of my mental health, to be honest.
Hereditary is truly a little gem.
But if you’re feeling a little down, Toni Collette‘s performance will ruin your entire week.
My rating: 5/5 bats
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