The real horror of ‘Hereditary’ is its realistic portrait of a family in grief

This post contains spoilers for the ending of Hereditary.

At face value, Hereditary works as an elegant genre film about the occult. But on a subtextual level, even the most supernatural scenes in the film speak to the raw realities of being a family possessed by grief. 

Director Ari Aster told Mashable that initially, he “described [Hereditary] not as a horror film, but as a family tragedy that looks into a nightmare — but in the way that life is a nightmare when disaster strikes. Especially in succession.”

Maybe the experience of family dysfunction and death is so monstrous that we can only face it through the lens of a genre that houses our greatest ghouls and demons. Because, as Aster said, “What happens to this family is inherently horrific, even if you strip away all the supernatural elements.” Read more…

More about Entertainment, Horror, Grief, A24, and Hereditary