I Have Never Been More Uncomfortable

Rating: 10/10 (8 July 2018)

Horror movies are supposed to be scary, right? Well this movie is very scary but that's not what makes it a horror movie. The horror in this film is the sheer uncomfortability throughout the entire experience. The majority of the film is neither satanic nor paranormal. It's a very uncomfortable drama with a lot of anticipation for something scary to happen. Things are weird and things are unsettling but that's it. Fir a while.
The first part that made me cringe was the decapitation. It was sudden, horrifying, and absolutely scarring. Especially, as Peter simply shuts down. It happens and he doesn't go to look at her and he doesn't do anything but drive home and lay in bed, never acknowledging what happened. We don't even truly know if she was decapitated. All we see is the mother crying in several settings, including the funeral, and then finally, a sudden close-up of Charlie's bug infested head on the side of the road. What an absolute nightmare!
Not only is the film extremely uncomfortable up to that point, but then it becomes legitimately scary on top of it. Suspense, fear, an uncomfortable sensation that won't go away. This movie messed me up and made me truly disturbed. Well done. There's imagery of the mother clung to the ceiling, violently and rhythmically bashing her head into the attic door. Previous to this shot, we hear banging on the door but it doesn't seem practical as it's a door on the ceiling and she's on the ground. Then we see that imagery and it just made me sigh out loud. Then, there's naked smiling people hiding in shadows, and Peter's reflection is of himself smiling, and there's decapitaed corpses in the attic and there's the mother cutting her own head off with a wire and then other sorts of fun stuff.
Another horrifying aspect is that of control. In school the characters were talking about if a story is more tragic is a character can control their fate. In this case I think it's more tragic that they can't control their fate. The mother was under some sort of possession and we can tell there's a true mother wanting to protect her kids vs the demon that has another agenda. The demon mother is shown sneering at her son at the table like an angry child, she screams at him about trying to abort him (then we see the true mother stop herself and immediately apologizing as she didn't know why she said that), and then entire sequence of her crawling on the ceiling trying to chase her son from bashing her head through the door to slicing through her own throat with a wire. We're rooting for the mom to save her son (like the one in The Babadook). We witness her horrible journey throughout the whole film and were skeptical of her, her true good intentions, and if she's possessed or not. Then, we see her discover the truth about everything and attempt to save everyone and defeat the bad guys. However, this immediately leads to her loss of control, her leading to her son's fate and then to her very gruesome and horrifying death.
Likewise, the poor son is being tortured throughout this whole movie. He barely did anything wrong. His sister's death is very controversial in terms of fault. Yes, he was high while driving. Yes, he was speeding. Yes, he should've kept a closer eye on his sister. However, he didn't have to bring Charlie, that was his moms decision. Charlie wasn't careful and got into an allergic trouble. Being a great brother, he immediately reacted to the situation and tried to save her. He ran out of the house away from his crush, carrying his sister in his arms. As she's losing her ability to breathe, he speeds down the road trying to reach the hospital and tries to comfort her on the way. We're rooting for him because he's finally doing something good and we don't want Charlie to die. When Charlie puts her head out the window, it's not his fault. He was going fast but that was to save her life and he was high but there's no way he could've forseen this happening. Also, it's completely bad luck that as she had her head out the window, there'd be a dead animal in the road and a pole that would lead to her decapitation. There's a lot going on here and we can't entirely blame Peter for her death. Also, was it really just bad luck? This could easily be part of the master plan. It's no coincidence she was decapitated as the other female family members were. It would make sense to stage this because Charlie would be dead and the family, especially their target Peter, would be vulnerable. This way they could put Charlie's soul into Peter's body, as they do in the end.
With this torture, Peter is also tortured in school and haunted constantly. He is even possessed and forced to smash his face into his desk. With this, he's constantly dead looking and even cries like a child throughout the movie. It's heartbreaking to see and crushing, because he can't do anything about it. He finally fights back in the end, but dies in his attempt to escape. He was never in control which makes it that much more tragic.
This film is Rosemary's Baby meets The Babadook meets The Amityville Horror. The mix of suspense, gore, terror, and uncomfortability is absolutely perfect and horrendous for a horror film. It succeeds the cliches and jump-scare-relying films that we normally get. Hereditary is a gem, masterpiece, unconventional addition to the genre, homage to the classics, and one of the most true depictions of terror and fear I've ever seen.