family dynamics in Hereditary
Hereditary was an enjoyable film to watch, but not the type of enjoyable where I see myself watching it again in the future. I'm not sure if I found it boring exactly, but a lot of the tension was mitigated by elements of the supernatural that felt unnecessary. The most interesting scenes were the ones focusing on tension within the family, and by the middle of the film, those were disregarded for standard possession horror, and I felt distracted. I was also annoyed by the lack of characterization of the daughter, which reduced her death to a furthering of tension between the mother and son. Her re-occurrence as a spirit had very little emotional depth and honestly wasn't scary, because the viewer had no understanding of her or the grandmother (which she is assumed to represent). Like Aster's other film, Midsommer, a lot of aspects felt undeveloped, especially the ending (I do love seeing people being set on fire in movies though. Who doesn't)
Creed writes that "the possessed female subject refuses to take up her proper place in the symbolic order" (38). There's no doubt that Annie doesn't follow the natural family order -- she rejects motherhood so much that she tries to kill her son while sleepwalking. She even admits to not wanting to have had kids in the first place (or at least him). The tension between them creates the most interesting dynamic in the film, even though it is hard to place within the context of the demonic possession storyline. Why is he so unwanted when he becomes the "king" in the end? His relevance to the spiritual side of the story feels undeveloped. Again, this is why I felt a bit disoriented in the last fifteen minutes, since all the power was given to the son, who previously occupied none. The father ultimately had no role affecting the plot development in the film, and he had absolutely no bearing on the plot, so it's not like his death changed anything. As I write this, I'm becoming confused at what really matters in this movie. Am I meant to focus on the levels of chaos within the family, or the possession that ensues? For me, there seems to be a distinct split between the two parts of the movie.
The only two characters who were of any interest to me were Annie and her son, and the power struggle between them. Like I wrote before, the rest of the family felt uncharacterized outside of their deaths. The fact that Annie was the head of household and the only one seen working or making decisions reflects the change in symbolic order Creed mentioned, but the family structure itself is confusing and meant to be understood in the context of the grandmother, who is in charge of the demon/cult/murder stuff. Her lack of influence on the entire family made this unconvincing.
I realize that this is a confusing reflection on the film, since I found my focus to be all over the place, but I want to know if other people found Hereditary to be an effective story. Family has been important for many of the films we've watched this term (The Shining, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, as well as countless other horror movies), but did you find this one less effective?
I definitely agree that the whole demon storyline seemed not to belong and distracted from the real meat and potatoes of the tension which is the rocky mother son relationship. As she said, she didn't want to have him, and she has already almost killed him once in her sleep. This is way more interesting to me, than to write all of their tension off as a demon possessing the family, plus makes it more scary because it's so much more real! I have read quite a few other blogs too that agree with you too!
ReplyDeleteDUDE I totally feel your point about how Annie and Peter were the only character's in the family that were really developed. I keep thinking about Steve!!! The film does not focus on how the death of Charlie affects him at all... it almost felt like he was not really affected by it even. I also agree with you that this film's storyline was kinda confusing. Normally, I tend to like movies that confuse me to the point where rewatching answers a lot of questions, and I gain a lot from another time through. However, I don't think that is really the case with this film :/
ReplyDeleteHey! Nice blog, you brought up a bunch of cool points! I love this film, but I agree the cult demon thing felt a bit disconnected from the grief and family dynamics plot. However, I think Steve's character playing such a passive role is what makes his character that much more compelling. He's cold, quiet, and we see so little emotions affect about him and his thoughts on Charlies death (the most we get is him sitting on the bed staring at her sketchbook). And I think he's supposed to directly contrast Annie, we see Annie be openly emotional, she says she doesn't want to burden her family but in every scene she is the one to bring up that others are ignoring their issues, she fully believes in the cult stuff and the supernatural. On the opposite end, Steve rejects everything about the supernatural, going as far to directly blame Annie for so many things, he trust in the science over magic all the time. I think it's an interesting dynamic to think about about further genders the characters by stereotypes that may be interesting to think about. :) -Camille C
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I find this film to be alittle silly and not very scary. I do find it to be creepy however and I think that that creepiness emanates from the level of family disfunction that the film foregrounds. I think that it is on the level of The Shining in terms of its ability to portray a family that is falling apart.I think some of its underdeveloped feeling comes from its weak satanic possession plot. I would be curious to hear more about what you think though.
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