Why do we do this to ourselves?
Spoiler status: Tried my best to avoid any big ones. Do with that what you will.
Any time a movie is accompanied by articles with headlines like “We Need To Talk About THAT Scene,” you know you’re in for quite the ride.
The latest bone-chilling horror movie Hereditary is such a movie, and after skimming through some reviews with the hope of avoiding spoilers, I gathered that some shit was going to go down in “the car scene,” so anytime a character was near a vehicle I braced myself for the head-spinning madness that was sure to ensue.
Let’s back up a bit. If you’re not familiar with the movie, it’s the work of writer-director Ari Aster and a work of A24, an entertainment company with an excellent track record in truly terrifying indie horror (The Witch, It Comes at Night, Killing of a Sacred Deer). But if you’re not familiar with the movie, the basic recipe is a grandma’s death, a slowly unravelling mom, an idealistic dad, a creepy-as-hell little girl, and a dumbfounded teen boy whose role (and value) in all this bubbles to the surface and eventually implodes.
Now I watch a lot of horror. I schlep to the theater to see whatever ghost concoction has been dreamed up by whatever twisted director is being hailed as a genius, and I queue them up on Netflix to watch in the comfort of my own home. I love horror, and I love the thrill that accompanies watching such a film. I was shaking after The Invitation, and breathless after Super Dark Times.
Hereditary was on a whole new level. It left me trembling and tense and looking around at the theater to see if others had the same reactions I did. (They did, as emphasized by the nervous laughter that rang out in unison when an audience member sneezed during a quiet scene.)
On the surface, there’s nothing that new about Hereditary. It hinges on a trigger event (the death of the grandma) then weird stuff starts happening. Mental health unravels, sanity is questioned, things go bump in the night, tense conversations are had at the dinner table. These are all common tenets of horror films.
But the movie’s uncanny ability to sow tension and its lack of reliance on jump scares puts it in an entirely other league. The movie is two hours of emotional torture, crafted by intermittent tics and fleeting apparitions that are horrifying precisely because they’re so understated. Hereditary places common tropes of horror into a fervid family drama and creates the most unsettling type of horror.
I have to mention the acting, and the superb performance that produced one of the most harrowing shots I’ve ever seen in a horror movie. Yes, it’s in THAT scene, and it’s an uncomfortably long close-up shot on teenage Peter’s face (played by Alex Wolff) immediately after what will surely be the most horrific event of his life. Wolff’s ability to act with his eyes, pooling with stoney tears and staring straight ahead, would put Tyra Bank’s smizing to shame.
If you’re looking for clarity, this isn’t the movie for you. But the questions I still have about the movie only serve to make the film even more terrifying. Are the terrifying theories I’ve concocted about the movie’s events the truth? Or am I fruitlessly connecting the dots to create my own image of what happened, trying to create sense where there is none?
Hereditary does exactly what a horror film should. It leaves you with questions to which the answers might be more terrifying than the movie itself.
Watching horror isn’t a way to escape reality and have a jolly laugh or two, which is how I’ve heard others describe the appeal of other genres, like romantic comedies (although I do enjoy a romantic comedy now and again. No hate.)
Watching horror forces the viewer to confront the darkest parts of humanity and its deepest traumas. It brings you to the edge of your seat, makes you hold your breath and curl up into the theater seat, your jacket hovering in front of your eyes but leaving you unable to resist sneaking a peek.
Other reads on Hereditary:
A recent review of the movie’s Wikipedia page - yes, the Wikipedia page, is one of the most clever review forms I’ve seen in awhile. Check it out here.
Reading about what goes into the making of a horror movie is both fascinating and comfortingly demystifying. This interview with Alex Wolff discusses the effects of acting in such a dark movie and the depths he went to for that scene in the classroom.
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