So, I watched Hereditary... [horror movie rant? with spoilers hidden]

SPOILERS down below. Watch out and take care (Mystery Recapped channel reference).

Someone recommended Hereditary to me a while ago (either on Wacky or IG), and I had some time today, so I thought I’d watch it. I need to just talk about this :stuck_out_tongue: Do not read the spoilery questions if you haven’t seen Hereditary but want to. This was the first time a horror movie took me out of the moment because of all the things piling up. Like:

Spoilery questions 1
  • why have Peter addicted to weed? Is it to make us think he’s hallucinating?
  • why even bring a random pretty girl into the movie only for her to make a big appearance a couple times and we don’t even get her name unless I missed it?
  • Is it normal for kids to go back to school right after someone dies? I have no idea of the passage of time.
  • Why is there zero explanation of the meanings of the words on the walls except the last one?
  • Why is there no scene where Annie learns what she’s been a part of?
  • What was with the album? Why show Joan and Grandma knew each other? What is Joan? Is she even real?
  • Why the naked people at the end? Are they dead or are they actually there? Their sudden appearance made me laugh a little. I never laugh while watching horror movies, but that random naked guy standing and smiling (not even a creepy smile) in the doorway was the weirdest, most random thing XD
  • And no explanation as to who or what dug up the gravesite and I totally forgot about that gravesite issue because it didn’t come up again until the end.

I also felt disconnected from the mother, Annie (maybe that was the point?). And I thought maybe there should have been a flashback scene with the youngest sister Charlie and Grandma to understand that connection.

Spoilery questions 2
  • There’s speculation that Charlie was possessed from birth, but that means the demon was able to disguise as a human from the start, which isn’t usually seen and it was also weird that suddenly Charlie dies, and why the decapitation of the head?
  • Why that way of dying? It could have been anything. Or they could have had a common weird way of family members dying and it has to do with heads. By why associate the demon with decapitated heads? It was so weird at the end to see the obvious fake dead bodies bowing headless to some weird statue thing that wasn’t there before.
  • Maybe they could have shown that statue thing being creepily constructed? Idk.

I think it might have been nice to start the show before the passing of the grandmother to get a sense of what the family dynamic was like. The movie began with trying to say the youngest daughter was Grandma’s favorite, but I didn’t feel that at all in the beginning. It was just kind of weird. But maybe that was the point?

Spoilery questions 3
  • There was so much family death information feeding that I didn’t remember or even care to remember how Annie’s father and brother died. Why talk about that, Annie, all of a sudden? It felt so unrelated and if they wanted to connect it, it should have been connected later.
  • Why the wealthy demon thing? Didn’t look like there was any large sum of money inherited. I thought the Grandma was a vessel, but she was a cult leader (which I read in a movie review). If the director has to explain that she was a cult leader trying to bring a certain demon of wealth into the mortal world, then it should have been in the movie. That’s important information.
  • Why show Grandma’s spirit to Annie so soon in the beginning and then never show it again? I was excited something might happen, then it never did. Grandma’s role in Annie’s life was so vague, it didn’t make sense to me to even introduce her or have the scene where Charlie sees her grandma in a field with fire (if Charlie is already possessed, it doesn’t make sense for her to react curious).
  • It’s also an odd choice of cast because they don’t even look related :stuck_out_tongue:
  • Annie’s crying scenes, she wasn’t even crying. Maybe that was the point to feel disconnected from her? She was heaving and screaming a lot, but no tears.
  • That weird dream scene where we find out Annie never wanted to get pregnant…was for who? Why was it Annie’s nightmare? If the point of the movie was to distance Peter from everyone, why couldn’t he have had that nightmare?
  • No idea about Annie’s relationship with her mother. I thought there could have been flashbacks. “Then we were talking, then we weren’t, and then we were” tells me nothing.

Peter is the older brother. His solo scene in the car after an accident was really well done. In fact, the guy who played Peter was pretty good throughout. Everyone else was kind of…hmm, idk :stuck_out_tongue:

We never find out what the dad does for a living. We also never find out why Annie makes miniatures of her own house and of the incidents that took place. Not a single person, not even her husband asks her about it. Even if they don’t ask, they don’t even go into the room to look at it to be horrified or creeped out or whatever.

Spoilery comment about Annie's miniatures

And the houses stacked on top of each other with dirt in between was a pretty creepy object that appears out of nowhere, yet no one asks about it and it just sits there throughout the entire movie after the failed séance. WHY. And there was no scene where Annie is making it or bringing it in from somewhere.

Spoilery comment about Annie's sleep walking

Also the bit about Annie’s sleep walking was a weird thing to suddenly bring up out of the blue when it didn’t happen yet. They should have shown her sleep walking, and then she gets upset, so begins to talk about when she did it last, maybe with her husband? That would have made more sense.

She’s just met Joan and is telling her all these gruesome details… uhhh… I was kind of cringing. Why divulge that many details? I’m sure Joan does not want to hear it :sweat_smile:

Was it scary then? Some scenes were and they were all with Peter, the older brother :stuck_out_tongue: The guy who did Peter was really the main character. Not the mom or his sister. His expressions and reactions really brought in the tension. And I just felt so bad for his situation.

Dad was just sorta there to be the dad that doesn’t believe in the mom who believes in spirits. He thinks she’s going crazy. You know, the usual horror movie stuff.

Halfway through the movie, very little paranormal activity to suggest anything supernatural going on. A bit disappointed about that. Just barely 3 out of 5 stars.

so, the last spoilery comment, I promise

There was also this weird frantic moment of Annie rushing to Joan’s and noticing the welcome mat again. The camera shows the inside where Joan obviously hexed or did something to Annie’s family. But then Annie suddenly rushes home for no particular reason to dig through her mother’s things. It was just to show that yes, her grandmother did make that mat, and then to show a random pause on a demon of riches, which Annie seemingly dismisses, so I wanted to, but…

But you know the movie is telling you that it’s this demon that’s around. Annie should have become fixated on the demon, honestly. Making her pause on the album to find out Joan and grandma were close? But from the album, I couldn’t understand what the movie is trying to tell me. I didn’t get cult vibes. It just looked like a party, and it looked like Grandma and Joans were friends.

Then Annie frantically randomly goes to the attic (which, so late in the movie, is shown for the first time which was also weird). What is she looking for? Scenes were so disconnected.

And no idea what Charlie’s little toys signified if anything.

Also, such a bunch of weird floating body moments and just this scene of the mom on the ceiling…I know she’s supposed to be possessed, but that was ridiculous. Also, when the mom suddenly seemingly is possessed by Charlie the first time, it sounds nothing like Charlie :sweat_smile:

Thanks for reading my movie rant XD Sorry it was all over the place. I would say though, this movie did give me some ideas for the demons in my magic realism story.

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I might have mentioned this before, but I know a guy who really likes the movie even though he is best buds with Paimon.

At least, he thinks he is.

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I have to wonder if they even notice it, since it seems that everyone is starting to lose it. Maybe it’s something that the audience can see but not the characters? That’s pretty meta, though.

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It would be if they did that kind of thing throughout the movie, but that’s the first time. Maybe they could have had the daughter interact with it in the forest or something. Maybe it’s like a hidden thing the mom made. Then it would tie in with the rest of the movie.

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I think it would be cool if that movie got remade in a few decades, to give the audience an easier to follow story.

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The movie does have quite high ratings on Amazon. The person who recommended it to me, I remember them saying it was the best horror movie and that they love it, which is why I wanted to see it.

So… :woman_shrugging: Not for everyone, I guess.

If the director has to explain everything, that’s like if a writer has to explain everything in their story meaning that maybe it should be rewritten to include those things or at least be made clear. I’d watch a remake or a prequel.

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Exactly what I just said XD

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Certain horror stories gain their horror from being mysterious and hard to follow. But it’s a precarious balancing act between giving away too much and not explaining anything.

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@NotARussianBot and if it has high ratings, maybe it will be :grin:

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True!

How much to leave out, but not too much so that it’s vague… I mean, not just horror, but any story suffers from this.

I’m over here with my dark fantasy story doing foreshadowing but being careful not to reveal the answers too much.

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