Hereditary review
Hello everyone and welcome to my blog. For those who know me you know about my love for horror films so once a month I’m going to review and discuss a scary flick. We’ll look at the classics, some new films, and I want your suggestions on what I should review. I’ll do my best to cover all the different genres within the genre – slashers, ghosts, monsters, etc.
SPOILER ALERT! – These will be reviews so if you haven’t seen the movie you’ll want to watch it first before you read this. Let’s do this.
HEREDITARY
Buzz for this film was big and it was near the top of my list when it debuted. Great reviews and very positive praise for it. Fast forward to August and I’m wandering through Target when I see the dual DVD/Blu Ray disc set for $10. Yes. I watched it a few days later. What did I think? I’ll do my best to explain. If you’ve seen it and loved it right away then I agree but – I needed to do a little more digging. I did really enjoy it but I think there is too much going on.
The Graham family – Annie, her husband Steve, son Peter, and daughter Charlie have just buried Annie’s mother. She led an interesting life that was secretive and full of odd relationships with her other family members. Annie’s relationship was never good with her mother and mental illness becomes a topic as she decides to attend therapy sessions to confront the loss. This family seems a bit odd. Not so connected with each other. Peter is a pot smoking lazy teenager whose plans to get trashed at a party go south when Annie suggests he take his younger sister Charlie with him. He does and Charlie eats something that sets off her peanut allergy. As Peter is racing to get her to the hospital she sticks her head out the car window. Oh my god what just happened?! Did her head just slam into a telephone pole? Frozen with terror Peter returns home, parks the car and goes to bed. The next morning Annie finds Charlie’s decapitated body in the back seat. So yeah, she hit her head… Then we see that head on the side of the road getting eaten by bugs. A nasty reveal that sticks with you. The family struggles to move on from this and Annie begins to bond with a woman named Joan she meets at a support group. Joan shows her how to conduct a séance to communicate with Charlie. It works using a notebook Charlie had but Annie can’t get the rest of the family to buy into it. They all start fighting and bickering. Blaming one another for everything that has gone wrong. Peter seems to be haunted by Charlie and is having strange visions. After Annie believes Charlie is possessing the family she goes to ask Joan for help. Joan’s not around but Annie notices things at her house that remind her of her mother. Now you start to see what’s going on. Cult. This is when I really got into it. Annie finds her mom’s photo albums with guess who in the pictures? Joan! She also finds a book talking about a demon wanting to possess a male body. Cue the third and final downward spiral act. Peter has a terrifying vision of himself and knocks himself unconscious at school. Annie rants to her husband Steve about what is happening. He’s so done with her he says he’s going to call the cops. Did we mention Annie’s mother’s headless body has turned up in the family’s attic with strange ritual scrawlings on the wall in blood? When she throws Charlie’s notebook into the fireplace to end all of this her husband catches on fire and dies. Peter wakes up and finds his dead father then is attacked by Annie. The next few scenes are so surreal as Annie floats into the air and saws through her own neck with piano wire. You aren’t sure what you’re watching at this point. Peter jumps out the window then is lead to the family’s treehouse. Inside he finds Charlie’s severed head wearing a crown. Also in the treehouse are Annie and her mother’s dead bodies along with Joan and the other cult members. We find out that the demon Annie read about – Paimon– finally has his male body in Peter to live through. Peter receives the crown and the cult followers all hail their new master.
So, what the ham sandwich just happened right? I think a lot of people needed some answers. I really like the story but I mentioned it might be too deep. Ari Aster is making his directorial debut here and really goes all in on cult and you can appreciate how detailed he is. Toni Collette is outstanding in the film and this isn’t her first horror rodeo. Don’t forget she was great in The Sixth Sense. Veteran Gabriel Byrne playing husband Steve is neither great nor bad and the cast is rounded out by Alex Wolff and Milly Shapiro as the interesting daughter Charlie. If you saw all the pub for this film, you were under the impression the character of Charlie was perhaps the main protagonist and then Aster pulls a Hitchcock on you by killing her off early in the movie.
Back to what happened though right? Okay here goes. Annie’s mother, Ellen, was the leader of a cult that worshipped a demon named Paimon whom we mentioned. Here is where I needed more info. Satan has many underlings or minions who serve under him, but I had never heard of Paimon. He is known for being the most loyal to Satan, has a booming voice and has immense knowledge. To manifest himself, he requires a male host. Ellen’s plan was for Annie’s child to be that host. It was incorrect with Charlie, so she is killed and Paimon can be transferred to Peter. Along the way the demon kills every other family member to achieve what Ellen wanted which was an idol to worship and powers or wealth to receive. This awful unraveling and tragedy that befalls this family was planned all along. None of this was an accident. The supernatural is oozing but as is the state of our culture right now, mental illness plays a huge role.
Once you get the whole story you really get spooked. This seems like something that could happen to really anyone right? The trend with many new horror films is real life horror. Not monsters but the terror we all might have to deal with every day. What about when one of our loved ones pass? Or one of our children? What if that was all planned and being run by a group of unspeakably evil people? I love Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist, and this film borrows a lot from both. Aster does a great job and much credit due to the production company A24. They are releasing the best scary movies right now. The Witch, It Comes at Night, and The Blackcoat’s Daughter.
Maybe I thought the movie was about something else before I saw it, but I wasn’t disappointed and the title makes a lot of sense now. Aster’s newest film is Midsommar which is out now and I’m itching to see it. It’s good to see a well-done film about a cult and we’ll see if he continues in this sinister genre.
Enjoy the trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHxcDbai7aU