Respond to these rapid questions in our Hereditary quiz and we will tell you which Hereditary character you are. Play it now.
“Hereditary” is one of those films that should not be described in detail because doing so will not only ruin the surprises, but it will also make the listener wonder if you actually saw the film or if you were just dreaming about seeing it. The first 90 minutes of the film are filled with a palpable sense of dread, and the final 30 minutes are completely off the rails in the best possible way. The story, written and directed by Ari Aster, is structured in such a way that it’s difficult to tell whether the strange events you’re witnessing are real or figments of the Graham family’s imaginations. The Grahams are a family cursed by Biblical bad luck as well as a genetic predisposition to various types of mental illness.
In the film, Toni Collette portrays Annie Graham, an artist and mother who is dealing with the death of her mother while attempting to complete an exhibition of dioramas that appear to depict her own family’s life as well as Annie’s internal state of mind. Peter Wolff, Annie’s oldest child, is a sad-eyed pothead who is drifting through life. Alex Wolff plays Peter. Charlie, Peter’s younger sister, is played by Milly Shapiro, who portrays her as a disturbed 13-year-old with the dead stare of a statue. Annie’s stoic, kindhearted husband Steve is played by Gabriel Byrne, who only wants the family to be happy and is struggling to bring the family together. We learn that the family matriarch was anything but cuddly after her death, and that everyone is still reeling from it. Explicit displays of emotion, as well as anything that might allow them to reveal their innermost feelings to one another, make the family feel uncomfortable. Despite the fact that Annie is actually attending a grief management circle that meets in a church basement, Annie tells her husband that she is going to the movies with her friends. Marijuana is used to seduce Peter into unconsciousness. Charlie spends his days obsessively sketching in a small notebook, and…
Perhaps I shouldn’t tell you about the things that I was about to tell you about in the first place. Perhaps it is preferable if you simply immerse yourself in the narrative. The more “Hereditary” drew me in, the more grateful I was that I didn’t know much about it before walking into the theater—including whether or not the plot has any connection to the film’s one-word title, if it has one at all.
“Hereditary” appears to be heavily influenced by a wide range of classic sources, both within and outside of the horror genre, demonstrating a high level of film literacy. Asian horror icons such as “The Grudge” and “The Eye” appear prominently, as do classics such as “Rosemary’s Baby,” “The Exorcist,” “The Amityville Horror,” and the aforementioned Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
But you shouldn’t waste any more time and start this Hereditary quiz.
But it is also inspired by the intense family psychodramas of Mike Leigh and John Cassavetes, which place strong-willed but deeply damaged people in close proximity and watch as they suffer barely-concealed torment from suppressing their rage, then lash out in displays of emotional violence that are as intense as the bloodletting and surrealism on display in this film. Throughout the film, the family is subjected to unspeakable horrors. Everyone’s controlling facades crumble a little more with each new trauma they endure, exposing emotional fissures in the family as a whole. It makes you wonder if the social institutions that surround us, as well as the intricate practices of language, science, and literature aren’t just elaborate means of keeping fear of death and random misfortune at bay.
Family arguments and breakdowns might occur in a realistic movie, but the regular eruptions of weirdness, surrealism, and nightmare spectacle take place in the spaces where they might occur. Even though the parents and children communicate with one another in the language of considerate individuals, you quickly learn how to distinguish between the passive-aggressive digs, the excuses and deflections, and the knife-twists masquerading as expressions of concern. It appears that whenever something bloody, bizarre, or merely unsettling occurs, it is in response to whatever it is that the characters are refusing to confront head-on.
Hereditary Quiz
There are images of mangled, burned, and mutilated flesh, as well as uncanny behavior displayed by reflections and beams of light, as well as sound effects that appear to be occurring inside your head, in this film. There is shocking physical violence in this film, but it is ultimately not as much as you might think it is if you talk about it later on in the discussion. However, if someone were to ask me how violent “Hereditary” is, I’d say it’s one of the most violent films I’ve ever seen, if only because the emotional damage inflicted on the Grahams by life and by one another is so profound, and because the entire thing is perched right on the edge of catastrophe, and the smaller shocks are so effective that you don’t want to see what will happen when the movie finally tips over into the abyss (and yet,
Also, you will find out which character are you in this Hereditary quiz.
Despite the fact that you don’t care about these disturbed individuals, Aster and the cast make you care about them and fear what they might do to one another, themselves and strangers. As is always the case when something terrible happens, you are filled with sadness as well as shock, because it will now be even more difficult for the Grahams to climb out of the pit of sadness that their grandmother’s death has cast them into, as well as finally address past traumas that they have been ignoring or covering up for years.
Every sharp object used for any purpose gets its own, ominous close-up in “Hereditary,” and when something horrible does happen, it’s usually far worse than you imagined, not only because of the incidents themselves, but also because “Hereditary” is a rare horror film that pays proper real-world attention to how individuals deal with trauma. “Hereditary” is a must-see if you like horror films that pay proper real-world attention to how individuals deal with trauma. The Grahams are seen lying in bed, completely depressed to the point of paralysis. Our characters are seen snapping, nipping, and hiding within themselves, causing harm to themselves as well as those around them. In this film, there are several scenes that had me on the verge of tears because of the brutality with which people speak to one another, saying deeply hurtful things that are as petty and self-serving as they are true, inflicting damage that can never be undone, all because they are in such pain that they require to see someone else hurting even more.
About the quiz
In a genre where the low art of the jump scare is king, it’s rare to find a horror film that is genuinely interested in the larger issues that it raises, but “Hereditary” is exactly that kind of movie. The film appears to be attacking rationality itself at times, scraping and scratching and tearing at the thought structures and language that we’ve developed over millennia in order to live and function in the world, with the ultimate goal of plunging us backwards in time so that we reconnect with the superstitious cave-mind that looked up at the sky when it started raining and wondered what the tribe had done to anger the gods.
Also, you must try to play this Hereditary quiz.
The final act of the film raises doubts about the verifiable reality of everything you’ve just witnessed, which seems appropriate given the amount of time the script spent focusing on the concept of the inexplicable during the course of the film. They, along with their cinematographer, Pawel Pogorzelski, the camera and lighting crews, and the entire sound department, deserve special recognition for conjuring up creepy moments that are so meticulously imagined that they are truly unlike anything you’ve ever witnessed or experienced before. For the first time in a long time, I found myself peering over my shoulder during a movie to make sure nothing sinister was lurking beyond my line of vision, but this film forced me to do so.
For more personality quizzes check this: Hereditary Quiz.
