Hereditary (film)
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Hereditary is a 2018 American supernatural psychological horror drama film written and directed by Ari Aster, in his feature directorial debut. It stars Toni Collette, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro and Gabriel Byrne as a family haunted after the death of their secretive grandmother.
Plot
Annie Graham is a miniatures artist who lives in Utah with her husband, Steve; their 16-year-old son, Peter; and their eccentric and reserved 13-year-old daughter, Charlie. At the funeral of her secretive mother, Ellen Leigh, Annie delivers a eulogy explaining their fraught relationship and her mother's extremely private life. A week later, Steve is informed that Ellen's grave has been desecrated, while Annie thinks she sees an apparition of Ellen in her workshop. Annie lies to Steve, stating that she is going to the movies and then drives to attend a support group for the bereaved. Annie reveals to the group that her family suffered from mental illness that resulted in their deaths and how Ellen was a significant figure in raising Charlie.
To attend a party, Peter lies that he is going to a school event, and Annie forces him to take Charlie with him. Unsupervised, Charlie eats cake containing nuts, to which she is allergic, and falls into anaphylactic shock. As Peter drives her to a hospital, Charlie leans out of the window for air. Peter swerves to avoid a dead deer and Charlie is decapitated by a telephone pole. In shock, Peter silently drives home and leaves his sister's corpse in the car for their mother to discover the next morning. The family grieves following Charlie's funeral, heightening tensions between Annie and Peter and causing Annie to behave coldly towards Steve. Peter is plagued by Charlie's presence around the house.
Annie is befriended by a support group member, Joan. Annie tells her she used to sleepwalk and recounts an incident in which she woke up in Peter's bedroom to find herself, Peter, and Charlie covered in paint thinner with a lit match in her hand. Joan teaches Annie to perform a séance to communicate with Charlie. Annie convinces her family to attempt the séance. Objects begin to move and break, terrifying Peter, and Charlie seemingly possesses Annie until Steve douses her with water. Annie suspects that Charlie's spirit has become malevolent. She throws Charlie's sketchbook into the fireplace but her sleeve also begins to burn. She retrieves it and heads to Joan's apartment for advice but Joan is nowhere to be found.
Annie notices that Joan's welcome mat resembles her mother's craft work. She goes through her mother's possessions and finds a photo album linking Joan to Ellen, and a book with information about a demon named Paimon, who is described as being a ruler of Hell, and who wishes to inhabit the body of a male host. She also finds pictures of Ellen being surrounded by members of a cult who toss gold coins on her and being worshipped as their leader. Annie then enters the attic, and finds Ellen's decapitated body with strange symbols on the wall written in blood. At school, Peter slams his head against his desk, breaking his nose and is brought home. Annie shows Steve her mother's body and the sketchbook. Annie begs Steve to burn the sketchbook so she can sacrifice herself to stop the haunting, but Steve assumes she has gone mad, accusing her of desecrating Ellen's grave herself. When Annie throws the book into the fireplace, Steve bursts into flames and dies.
Peter awakens to find his father's body. At this moment, he encounters a nude man standing in a nearby doorway, revealed to be the same man who smiled at Charlie during the funeral at the beginning of the film. Annie chases him into the attic, which is decorated with occult imagery. Levitating, Annie beheads herself with a piano wire as naked coven members look on. Peter jumps out of the window. As he lies on the ground, a light enters his body and he wakes up. He follows Annie's levitating corpse into Charlie's treehouse, where Charlie's crowned, severed head rests atop a mannequin. Joan, other coven members and the headless corpses of his mother and grandmother bow to him. There is a portrait of Ellen with the title “Queen Leigh” that Peter notices. Joan, addressing him as Charlie, takes the crown and puts it on Peter’s head, claiming that Charlie was originally the host of Paimon since her birth, but have now corrected their mistake and has been given the desired male host to occupy. The cult members pledge their lives to Paimon as one of the “eight kings of Hell”, and is free to rule over them.
Cast
- Toni Collette as Annie Graham, a miniaturist artist.
- Gabriel Byrne as Steve Graham, Annie's psychiatrist husband.
- Alex Wolff as Peter Graham, Annie's and Steve's 16-year-old son.
- Milly Shapiro as Charlie Graham, Annie's and Steve's 13-year-old daughter.
- Ann Dowd as Joan, a support group member who befriends Annie.
- Mallory Bechtel as Bridget, Peter's schoolmate and love interest.
