Hereditary: A New Generation of Horror

If, like me, you love film – especially the dark and juicy type – you’ll probably be aware that there’s a new kid on the block when it comes to art-house horror. Hereditary, has been popping up on TV and social media for weeks, promising to be the scariest film that you may have seen in a long time. So, of course I was there on the opening night, charged with a potent dose of fear and anticipation for this ground-breaking tale of terror – what was I going to witness?

Hereditary stars Toni Collette and centres upon a family coming to terms with the loss of the maternal grandmother and, as you might have guessed, it’s not a straight-forward situation. The mother is described by her daughter as difficult and private and there is obvious dysfunction that lies beneath the surface of their relationship and, therefore, her daughter’s response to her death. There’s also marked tension between Toni Collette’s character and her children, a thirteen-year-old girl who had a special bond with her grandmother, and who has inherited a twisted version of doll-making from her own mother, and then there’s her stoner son who is obviously simmering with resentment. What happens after the death of the grandmother means that this family takes less of a spiralling descent into chaos and destruction, and more of a plummet into the darkest pits of hell.

From the off the film is beautiful, and we are in no doubt that we are in the hands of an artist in Director, Ari Aster. The opening shot is long and drawn, the colours muted and other-worldly, focusing on the family home which is made to look like the miniature models that Annie Graham, played by Collette, creates. This is followed by the introduction of the characters, entering the rooms as if they are the dolls that inhabit the models, and so instantly we are placed in the terrain of fate and freewill. Do we have agency? Or are we just pawns that our creators can toy with? Throughout the film we see Collette’s character working on her pieces, placing the dolls – replicas of her family – in the scenes that she creates, with chilling effect. It almost reminded me of the scenes from Clash of the Titans, many moons ago, where the Gods placed their offspring onto chess boards, and this fits in perfectly with this film, where myth is referenced in Collette’s son’s classroom. Except, here of course, the creators are not the gods, but even more alarmingly, our parents.

The story slowly unfolds, as does the sense of menace, building and building until you find yourself watching through splayed fingers, even though the fright that you are anticipating may never emerge. The close-up shots seem to be the main contributor in creating this tension, as the fear and discomfort in the main characters plays out heart-pumpingly on their faces. The camera spent so long on the son’s face at one point that I couldn’t even explain my discomfort.

Many critics are looking at this from the angle of grief, but to me it feels more than that. We have to remember the film’s title, this says all it needs to say, and where you go from there is up to you and will depend on many things. But I would argue strongly that this film wants to take us into a very unsettling place – the place where we might discover what we’ve unknowingly inherited from our parents. And if that’s not horrifying enough, for all you parents out there, you might be terrified at the prospect of what you now hand down to your own children. Scary, right?

There’s definitely a sense that we’re travelling back to the myths of old, where some really weird stuff used to go down. Hereditary feels like we are returning there, touching upon taboo subjects such as infanticide, that are more terrifying than any spectre appearing from the shadows. It leaves me wondering if grief isn’t the catalyst here, but rather a mother’s death that opens up a new space for daughter Annie Graham to occupy. Is this space the door through which the character descends into something raw and terrifying? What this descent is, is for the viewer to decide.

I would argue that this is also a very female-centred horror story. We continually bear witness to the dysfunctional triad of grandmother, mother and daughter, in what seems like a dark twist on the maiden, mother, crone trinity. The triangle motif is central to the film, to the point where we even see them etched into floorboards. In terms of gender politics, this film could also have something to say. I won’t elaborate on this further as yet, for fear of strolling into Spoilerville, but there is a clear sense that something is going on here, though that’s a different post altogether.

While this has been touted as the most terrifying thing you’ll see for decades, and the current generation’s answer to The Exorcist, it’s plain to see that this is art-house horror, so if you are going along expecting for sensationalism this won’t do it for you. What made a film like The Exorcist shocking wasn’t just the frights and the gore, it was the new ground that it trod; the taboos that were displayed repulsively upon the screen.

What is nice to see is a return to intelligent horror, something that has been happening with the likes of Get Out! It Comes at Night, and Mother! The type of horror that doesn’t rely on jump scenes, gore and the fantastical, and this is most definitely true of Hereditary. This is a slow-burner. One that cooks you from the inside. It feels fresh, yet has its roots in old-school, bringing to mind films such as Rosemary’s Baby and The Wicker Man, films where the terror was visceral and insidious, the place where our fears really live, the reason why we watch and read horror.

When it comes to this film being the scariest thing you’ll see for decades, I’m not sure if that’s true. I think fear – the gut-churning type – can be very subjective, changing form and depth at different points in our lives, and so with this film there are many layers to uncover when it comes to the terror that it promises to create. That’s not to say you won’t be on the edge of your seat. I watched it in an old-fashioned cinema, where the sound isn’t bouncing all around you, where you can hear and feel what is happening in the auditorium. By the final scenes the tension had built to such a great degree that people were shifting in their seats, hiding behind their hands and letting out very nervous laughs, and yes, I was one of them.

Hereditary does stick with you. The line that has stayed with me so far is spoken by Collette’s character when she spews out ‘No-one takes responsibility for what they’ve done!’ Does that line sum up the theme of Hereditary? For me, maybe. I expected to be unsettled by this film but found that I wasn’t. But it did make me want to sleep on it, think about it, get up and write about it the next morning before I was even dressed. It’s like one of those books that you might read over and over, where you get something different from each reading. I feel like I want to watch it again to catch the things that I missed, whether those things were dialogue or shapes moving in the corners. For now, I’m going to let it rest and see what corners it pokes at in my mind. Then, I might get some old photo albums out, take a stroll down memory lane.

Or maybe not.