Hereditary Shocks But Fails to Tie the Threads of Horror Together

Hereditary contains the mostly profoundly startling death I have ever seen in a movie. So much so, my recoiling almost made me turn off the DVD player. But just because I’m squeamish, doesn’t mean I won’t give a movie a proper hearing. I can definitely appreciate the creativity—especially since the resounding shudder abruptly shifted the second act, and the mystery into gear. So the set up firmly in place, an obvious question follows: Would writer/director Ari Aster complete a story arc that was commensurate with the unforgettable moment (and a horror I can never un-see).

We open with Annie Graham (Toni Collette). She’s an artist who produces miniatures, and the family snapshots she creates mirror both the familial pain, and the escalating supernatural drama of the 2018 film.

Dead Grandma Holds Sway

So as she’s preparing for an upcoming gallery, her mother has died. Annie’s eulogy quickly reveals a less than touchy feely person. “She was a secretive woman with private rituals, private friends.”

Lying in state, and recent images conveying a matriarch who took no crap, Annie isn’t the only one left with mixed emotions. Husband and son Alex share a resigned chuckle at the idea of feeling sad about grandma’s passing. “Yeah, I get it. I know,” Steve (Gabriel Byrne) relents.

But the creepiest movie kid since The Shinning twins does not concur. Charlie (Milly Shapiro) clicks with her tongue, draws incessantly, and carries an outer worldly mood that seems aligned to whatever hereditary horror grandma subjected this family to.

Real Life Is Scary Too

Toni Collette knows the feeling from The Sixth Sense. On the other hand, Charlie’s morose preoccupation clearly signals a much more ominous outcome than whatever Haley Joel Osment was navigating in the M. Night Shyamalan classic.

This especially since real life for Annie’s lineage is pretty bad. The diligent artist reveals a litany of past family tragedy, and the supernatural that hangs over the film takes a temporary backseat to unfortunate happenstance. As such, the back pedal returns a sense that maybe the mystery is still of this world, and the matriarch was just another victim.

Of course, we know better. The shift alluded above shatters the illusion, and all hell breaks loose for a family already on the brink. In turn, the fissures Annie has with her son and husband turn to full blown fractures.

Annie’s sleepwalking and waking dreams reveal serious doubts about motherhood, Alex has always felt hated by his mother, and Steven lives as if the boom is about to be lowered on the family tranquility he'd like to establish. So again, there’s a tempering of the supernatural that feels as though real life is the real peril for the Graham’s.

Supernatural Forces Don’t Live Up

The extrasensory signs are always there, though, and the push and pull between worlds only elevates the suspense and mystery. But the paranormal begins to edge out the everyday as Annie meets a fellow sufferer in bereavement group.

Joan (Ann Dowd) has lost her son and grandson in a drowning accident, and initially offers relief for Annie in the form of a common pain. The kismet eventually gives way, and Annie—under the direction of Joan—is able to reach Charlie as a medium.

In this, the hereditary nature of the events begin to reveal themselves, and throughly intertwine with the Graham family’s natural and supernatural tribulations. Pleasingly, the suspense builds in kind.

But so did a major concern as I endured what might be the second most disturbing death on film. (In fact, I fast forwarded the frame because normal time was just too much).

Can Aster unravel the mystery in a satisfying manner, and tie all the threads into a tidy bow. My fears were not unfounded, and Annie, Charlie, Steven, and Alex do not get the benefit of an “I see dead people,” moment to bring resolution to their final journey.

… Or mine, and while yes, I’m left with the two monumentally violent imprints, I can’t help feel the loss of not putting them (and the well spun drama) to better use.

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