PLOT SUMMARY: After facing a tragedy, Annie realizes her family had a connection with a cult.
If you've ever caught yourself proclaiming that you liked a movie, ask yourself this: Did you like it because of the star cast, the story or the way a story was told.
There are many stories out there but when a movie is being made, when a writer's vision is brought to life, not everything goes as planned.
Sometimes movies with a great star cast will fail because, at the end of the day, a good story being told well is what matters.
Storytelling is quite an art and not one perfected by many.
There are stories out there that are simply told, others try hard to insert a plot twist and end up confusing the viewer. Then there are those stories that keep you guessing till the very end and break away in such a tangent that you end up disliking the movie in spite of a decent first half.
Hereditary is a movie that brings on surprises when you least expect it. There are two instances you will not see coming and decide that yes, this is the best movie you've watched so far.
Then the ending happens and you are stunned at how much of it deters from the original plot.
When you retrace your steps, perhaps it will make sense or else you would feel duped and wonder if that plot twist was even necessary.
Right before the last ten minutes, the movie is actually shocking, frightening and the storytelling is amazing.
HEREDITARY Movie Plot
As the movie begins, Annie's mother has passed away and the rest of the family is introduced.
Annie builds dioramas, her husband is a caring father, Peter is the eldest son and lazes about, Charlie, the youngest daughter is a bit weird. She has the strange habit of making clicking sounds and is attracted to death. She also makes creepy sketches of her family. And she's allergic to nuts.
Later that night, after comforting her daughter, Annie finds her mother's old things and then sees her apparition. She attends a support group and reveals how much she resented her mother.
Charlie is back to being weird and cuts off birds' heads. Peter has a crush on his classmate and when he gets a chance to go to a party where she'll be present, he reluctantly takes his sister along at his mother's insistence.
This is where the first unexpected event occurs.
While Peter is smoking with his friends, his sister consumes cake which gives her an allergic reaction. Panicked, Peter drives her to the hospital. However, on the way, Charlie opens the window and pops her head out to breathe. Peter, while trying to save a dog, swerves and Charlie's head bashes against a pole, decapitating her.
Peter avoids looking in the mirror, drives back home and gets into bed. It is up to his parents to see the headless body of his sister.
Ideally, he should have called his parents or even woken them up when he reached home, but no. Deep in shock and guilt, he prefers to hide.
Annie is unable to take another tragedy and attends the support group only to drive away.
However, a woman stops her and reveals her loss and bonds with her.
Annie reveals her own mental issues where she sleepwalks and harms her family. Her father and brother too, she says, had mental health issues.
At this point, you wonder if the title has something to do with this issue and if Annie is going to go berserk.
Later, Annie meets the woman, Joan at a parking lot who reveals that a spiritual guide helped her contact her dead relatives and she should try it as well.
Annie is reluctant at first but tries it and believes Charlie is contacting her through her sketches. However, when things start to go wrong she realizes she may have called a demon instead.
This is when another truth is told. Joan was her mother's friend and part of a cult that worships one of the Kings of hell. The demon is called and possesses a male body.
To do that, the male vessel would have had to kill a female.
HEREDITARY Ending Explained with Spoilers!
Yes, it is Peter who has been seeing weird visions and has accidentally killed his sister.
Annie is unable to stop this and while trying to destroy the object through which the demon is connected, unknowingly kills her husband.
Annie is then seemingly possessed or losing it.
We see her climb walls, bang her head on the attic door which is on the ceiling. Later, she hovers and cuts her neck.
Frightened by these occurrences, Peter jumps out the window and is apparently dead.
But we see him get up and follow his mother's headless body to the treehouse which has become a shrine for the king of hell.
Inside, there are several people bowed before an altar which has Charlie's head on a spike.
A woman walks over to Peter and crowns him.
When the end credits roll, you wonder what you have just seen. Did all this make sense? Was it all connected?
The focus throughout had been on Annie and suddenly, it becomes all about Peter being crowned.
Barring the last few confusing minutes, the movie did a good job building suspense and giving you a cold, crawling skin when you see Annie scrambling up the walls.
Scare scale: 3/5
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