Hereditary
Overview
Hereditary is a 2018 horror film written and directed by Ari Aster in his feature directorial debut, and it is widely considered one of the most disturbing and terrifying films of the 21st century. The film follows the Graham family — mother Annie (Toni Collette), father Steve (Gabriel Byrne), teenage son Peter (Alex Wolff), and young daughter Charlie (Milly Shapiro) — as they grieve the death of Annie's secretive and emotionally distant mother, Ellen. The film opens with the announcement of Ellen's death, and it quickly becomes clear that there is something deeply wrong with this family. Charlie is a strange, withdrawn child who makes clicking sounds, cuts the heads off dead birds, and eats chocolate with her hands. Annie is a miniature artist who creates incredibly detailed dioramas of traumatic moments from her life — including one of her brother, who committed suicide after being diagnosed with schizophrenia. As the family grieves, horrifying events begin to occur. Charlie is killed in a shocking, graphic accident when she has an allergic reaction to a cake with nuts at a party and Peter, driving her to the hospital, swerves to avoid a dead animal in the road, sending Charlie's head into a telephone pole. Peter is consumed with guilt, and Annie is consumed with grief and rage. She begins attending a grief support group, where she meets Joan (Ann Dowd), a woman who claims she can communicate with the dead. Joan teaches Annie a seance ritual, which Annie performs, believing she is contacting Charlie. But she is not contacting Charlie — she is contacting a demon named Paimon, one of the eight kings of Hell. The film's final act is a relentless descent into madness and occult horror. Peter is possessed by Paimon, and Annie and Steve are brutally murdered. Peter, now fully possessed, climbs into the treehouse where Charlie used to play, where a group of naked cultists bow to him. The film reveals that Ellen, Annie's mother, was the leader of a cult dedicated to Paimon, and everything — the births of her children, the deaths, the grief — was all part of a decades-long plan to find a male host body for the demon. Toni Collette delivers one of the greatest horror performances ever put on film, capturing Annie's grief, rage, and eventual insanity. Ari Aster's direction is meticulous, with every frame filled with hidden details and foreshadowing. Hereditary was a critical and commercial success, earning over $82 million worldwide on a $10 million budget. It is a film about family trauma, inherited mental illness, and the terrifying idea that our lives may not be our own to control.
