We are finally back to do what we do best, or sometimes mediocre. We’re back to reviewing one film a month, and for September, Cece chose Hereditary. So her, Chris, and I answered a bunch of questions to the best of our knowledge. My name is Kent, and usually, I interject some inane commentary to the other people’s responses, but a lot of these answers stand on their own. Anything you see in bold will be written by me, just in case.
- Did Annie ever have a choice in the matter?
Cece: I guess the fuck not. Her whole life was completely run by her mother. It’s sick and twisted, but it’s true.
Chris: If you consider that she was being manipulated by her mother, probably from birth, and definitely directly from her brother’s suicide, to bring about the events that happened in a way similar to how they happened, then no, probably not.
Kent: To quote Dr. Dre and Ice Cube in Natural Born Killaz: “Doomed to be a killa since I came out the nutsack”. Family is a big theme, hell the film is called Hereditary. I don’t think that there was any way that she was going to be able to avoid these events. Aside from being molded in a particular manner, people like Joan wouldn’t have allowed it to play out any other way.
- Why did Annie get the ability to fly and do crazy shit?
Cece: She was possessed most of the times she was floating and stuff I believe?
Chris: Well, technically since she was crazy, everything she did was crazy shit. But I see that as less of a factual thing and more as the spirits of Charlie, Grandmama and whoever else the naked ghosts in the house were, and Prince Powerman manipulating Annie and Peter’s perceptions to get him to finally commit suicide
Kent: Out of anything that I don’t have a 100% answer for, this is it. Did the spirit possess Annie briefly? I believe the spirit was in Peter at that time, but maybe there was a transitional phase. This is the one question that I don’t have a reasonable answer to.
- Were you upset initially when Charlie died?
Cece: Woah. Like, what the fuck? I honestly had NO idea this would happen so soon into the film. I didn’t think she died in this movie. I thought she was going to be the normal creepy kids stable.
Chris: Holy shit! I knew she was going to die, having that spoilered back when the movie came out, but nowhere at all did I expect it to be that brutal. Kudos to the movie team for that one
Kent: I was pissed. Charlie was the character I latched onto immediately because creepy kids doing creepy shit is great. I was totally bummed out, but it was a necessary evil for the story. Really great death scene.
- Was Annie’s sleepwalking really her sleepwalking or something…..hereditary? Sorry, but seriously, was she really just sleepwalking?
Cece: I don’t think the ‘sleepwalking’ she was doing while we saw her in the film was real. I believe it had something to do with her possession and all the freaky shit happening in the house.
Chris: I would say that it was sleepwalking with a purpose based off of her subconscious. She didn’t want kids and hated herself, let’s burn us all to death
Kent: SO to go back to my response of Question 2, if a spirit could have entered her, then I would suggest that. Sleepwalking and other sleep activities happen for a reason. I used to sleepwalk a lot as a child. Then it just stopped. I don’t think I was possessed, but I’m not 100% sure of this. Let’s face it, my tubby ass would have been a poor vessel to choose.
- Who had the best performance(s)?
Cece: The best performances were Annie and Peter. The actors were so good. The father seemed very dry and stuff and so I couldn’t gauge him well.
Chris: The whole family was great. Annie and Steve are both known as great actors, and the kids did a great job too. Joanie from Handmaid’s Tale was pretty great in her 180° turn too
Kent: Ann Dowd as Joan because I love that lady. I thought both kids did a very good job because so many horror films with kids get sunk by poor children performances. Of course, Gabriel Byrne did his think. I was really impressed by Toni Collette. She had to do some crazy emotional shit and I liked it.
- Did the family really have a dog?
Cece: Yes. I saw the dog many times. However, as my roommate pointed out, they only had a dog when it was convenient. Ha!
Chris: I don’t remember them having one until Peter saw one outside his door, so no. Good job fucking with my head there
Kent: I’m going to say no, because we only saw it focused on that one time which may or may not have been real. If they had a dog, we would have seen it more, right? Like it would have been barking during any number of the freaky occurrences? If I had to guess, they intended on the dog having a bigger role but those scenes got cut in the final edit and we are left with this. (Edit: Godamn it. While rewatching, the dog is right there in the opening sequence. I was wrong.)
- Were you hoping for more storyline with the miniatures or were you satisfied?
Cece: I didn’t need anymore storyline with the miniatures. I did want a little more explanations overall though.
Chris: Yes. Standing as an allegory for the fact that the family is being manipulated like puppets is heavy handed and in your face. At least they could have used the models to set up a scare or two
Kent: Yeah, this had a lot of potential. I thought it was going to play a much bigger role, but as Chris said, it was just a heavy-handed allegory. I guess it worked, but we know that there potential for more cool shit. To quote a Bronx Tale: “The worst thing in life is wasted talent.” They had the chance to do more.
- Will someone be dumb enough to try to make a sequel to this?
Cece: There really is no need for it. It was super interesting and unique on its own. I like it the way it is. Someone may try, though.
Chris: It made money so yes
Kent: I am going to say no. Horror typically FORCES sequels even when there is no need, and often don’t bring back the original person behind the brilliance. There are so many bad sequels to list, but like I fear it would be something like The Last Exorcism where they try to keep it close to the original story and add on, but just fail. So please, leave it alone.
- Who was the most sympathetic character in this film?
Cece: Peter. Absolutely hands down. He felt guilt for killing his sister, his parents and grandmother could give 2 shits about him and he was just used as a vessel.
Chris: Steve, the dad. Trapped in the middle, trying to hold a family together between guilt, mental disorders, and the supernatural, what can you do. Toni Colette had some really great scenes, but when Gabriel Byrne broke down and started crying when he almost ran the red light, it got to me
Kent: My answer is Steve and I can’t really add much to what Chris already said. Arguments can be made for any of the 4 family members. I will go with Charlie because she didn’t want to go to that party. She surely didn’t want to lose her head over it. I feel like if the Crypt Keeper said that, it would have been funny.
Bonus Deuce:
B1. There was a lot of symbolism and foreshadowing used throughout the movie (see the above question of the miniatures). Was there any that surprised you?
Cece: The beheading was insane. I loved that. I also loved the whole ‘she wanted me to be a boy’ line in the beginning. My roommate and I pieced everything together toward the end with that.
Chris: The traffic pole surprised me. I got that it would become significant due to the lingering shot of it earlier, but wouldn’t have guessed how it would be
Kent: The beheading aspect was super neat. I don’t think they revealed too early about the grandmother’s head being removed, we just knew something had happened. Charlie happened, and even as Annie is cutting her head off, I still didn’t put a ton of thought into it. But in total, I really liked that aspect. I also liked the various names or signatures on the minis.
B2. The party scene felt off and a little surreal to me when I watched it. Part of me wonders if I am so far removed from youth today that I just didn’t connect with it or is it supposed to be one of the first scenes showcasing the mental breakdown occurring due to illness/hereditary traits/the supernatural at work?
Cece: The party was definitely very off. It seemed almost like they weren’t even really there.
Chris: This is my question and what bothered me about the scene, other than that it dates the movie, is that no one has a problem with Charlie being there. No one bullies her or makes fun of her, they serve her cake. It’s pretty obvious that she is odd, and a loner. Peter’s girl interest (who also had the flattest butt I have ever seen a camera linger on) remarks that she is odd, but no one seems to have an issue that a weird 13-year-old is just wandering around this party. Every group of teenagers I have ever been around wouldn’t have been that oblivious to not smell blood in the water and make faces if not remarks.
Kent: Given all of the things in this film that one can nitpick, this may have been the biggest one. Yup, I am overlooking Annie being on the ceiling for this. There is no way that Peter held enough sway at that party to prevent Charlie from being picked on. Kids will be kids and are dicks. Even if some are chill, some would have been cruel. I was just happy that they were nice enough to give her cake, despite knowing it was going to F her up. I will offer this thought. Charlie was already possessed at that point by Paimon, or however it is spelled. Was Paimon so powerful that Charlie kinda skated through the party as unscathed as she did? I keep wanting to call him Pei Mei from Kill Bill.
Final Thoughts – Did you like it and would you rewatch it or recommend it to other people?
Cece: I definitely liked it. I haven’t sat down and watched a modern ‘horror’ flick in a long time. This movie actually gave me goosebumps and made me jump a couple times. It was far more than just jump scares, though. It was psychological and that’s what I loved about it.
Chris: I liked it for the performances. They were pretty spot on and it felt like the director knew to just let the actor’s act. Additionally, Charlie’s death was unexpectedly brutal and the intriguing prospect of it being something like the Babadook where you aren’t sure of what is real or imagined due to mental illness. When it turns 90° into Rosemary’s Baby though, it just felt like a letdown. They did it well (Annie’s headless levitating corpse) but it felt like a cheat since none of it could have been figured out from watching the movie and noticing previous signs. They just dumped a lot of fourth act sidestepping
Kent: I really did like this. I plan on buying it…..when it is $10 or less. For a modern horror that made it into the theaters, it was good. Yes, they did pull a classic horror technique of giving us an overload of info at the end to tie everything together. Still, they did a good job with the slow burn parts. The acting was superb for a horror. I think that this is a film I could rewatch and have fun. I would recommend it to people who like possession films. I like tossing out recommendations. If you like possession movies then find Ava’s Possessions. It was on NetFlix for a while. It’s not on there, HULU, or Prime. If you know what you’re doing, find it. I think it was well done and different.
All the pictures used in this blog are for review purposes. They are the property of:
Please go find a copy and support the creators.