Hereditary
Show notes
Ari Aster’s Hereditary starts with a funeral and somehow finds several worse places to go. FolknHell talks miniatures, grief, ritual, Paimon, a house with no air in it and whether this ferocious family nightmare really belongs in folk horror.
Hereditary (2018) does not so much build tension as move it into the house and refuse to let it leave.
In Episode 34, FolknHell returns to Ari Aster’s feature debut, with Dave Houghton seeing it for the first time and Andy Davidson and David Hall discovering that repeat viewings do very little to make the thing less upsetting. The discussion gets into Toni Collette and Alex Wolff’s performances, the strange miniature rooms, the film’s near-total absence of relief, the cult hiding in plain sight and the small details that make much more sense once you know where it is all heading.
Then there is the folk horror question. The belief system is certainly there. So is ritual, inherited power and a community operating by rules the central family barely understands. Place matters too, particularly the Graham house and treehouse. The awkward bit is the outsider. Peter may be the clearest candidate, except he has been part of the plan from the beginning without knowing it.
The result is a film FolknHell regards as at least standing right on the edge of folk horror, and possibly rather more firmly inside than it first appears.
Spoilers throughout. If you have not seen Hereditary, watch it before listening. This is not one to have spoiled for you.
FolknHell VerdictA genuinely frightening, meticulously controlled horror film whose occult machinery only becomes fully visible once it is far too late to do anything about it. The folk horror label is not completely tidy, but the secret belief system, inherited ritual, trapped family and gradual revelation of an organised cult make a strong case. Excellent, exhausting and not remotely interested in cheering anybody up.
Scores- Andy Davidson: 8/10
- Dave Houghton: 7/10
- David Hall: 8/10
- Total: 23/30
- YouTube episode: [ADD LINK]
- FolknHell Film Page: https://www.folknhell.com/hereditary-review
- FolknHell Transcript Page: https://www.folknhell.com/hereditary-transcript
- FolknHell Editorial Article: [ADD FINAL ARTICLE URL]
- TMDb: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/493922-hereditary?language=en-GB
- Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/film/hereditary/
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7784604/
- Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hereditary
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hereditary_(film)
- Official trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6wWKNij_1M
Spoilers throughout. Discussion includes child death, decapitation, graphic violence, grief, family trauma, possession and self-harm imagery.
Folknhell is the folk horror podcast where Andy Davidson, Dave Houghton and David Hall dig into strange cinema, argue about whether it really counts as folk horror, and score every film out of 30.
Add your own score and comments about the films at https://www.folknhell.com/scores
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