SHERDOG MOVIE CLUB: Week 127 - Hereditary

[Cubo de Sangre]

The director talked a lot about the reason why the film was a slow burn was to allow the viewer to connect with the characters so that when something bad happened you were invested in their plight.

I didn't connect with them at all. Had a good laugh (due to the cliched predictability) when the daughter hit the pole. Although I must say the miniature re-creation of the event was my favorite part of the film.

It does bother me that it appears to be a legitimate cult based demon summoning while at the same time making damn sure he lets you know everyone involved is batshit crazy. Everyone is bipolar, schizophrenic, and dissociative identity disorder.

Are they? Weren't the two kids normal up until this point? And the schizo brother wasn't really schizo, he was being possessed?

 

[FrontNakedChoke]

By being destined to Hell. Earthly possession beyond their control is one thing. Your soul being hi-jacked and taken to Hell is another. The New Testament teaches that we go to Heaven by the grace of God. What stops any or all of the family from accepting Jesus, asking for forgiveness, and going to Heaven? Apparently genetics.




Even with the comment about Joan's doormat being like ones Annie's mom used to make?

Who's to say they didn't have the free will to do that and chose not to?

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

Who's to say they didn't have the free will to do that and chose not to?

Didn't someone here suggest that going to Hell was their destiny?

 

[MusterX]

Are they? Weren't the two kids normal up until this point? And the schizo brother wasn't really schizo, he was being possessed?

Were they? Charlie certainly had something wrong with her, be it demonic possession or mental illness. Her brother Peter had a grandmother that was a diagnosed multiple personality disorder who had a schizophrenic son and his mother was also a head case who married her psychologist. Those types of mental illnesses are inherited. So it bothers me, that or its genius, that it was filmed as a demonic possession but everyone involved was at risk of extreme mental disorder. I think it was filmed in a way that is obviously a demonic possession but then WHY do you have to make everyone mental?

 

[FrontNakedChoke]

Didn't someone here suggest that going to Hell was their destiny?

I see it more as, that their "curses" were hereditary.. in that they spawned from grandma and her involvement in the occult.

 

[FrontNakedChoke]

think it was filmed in a way that is obviously a demonic possession but then WHY do you have to make everyone mental?

Even if you weren't already mental, the paranormal stuff would likely drive you there.

I think that this was done on purpose though, almost to blur the lines between mental illness and demonic possession. Maybe to make the viewer dig a little deeper, or maybe because they're connected.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

Were they? Charlie certainly had something wrong with her, be it demonic possession or mental illness. Her brother Peter had a grandmother that was a diagnosed multiple personality disorder who had a schizophrenic son and his mother was also a head case who married her psychologist. Those types of mental illnesses are inherited. So it bothers me, that or its genius, that it was filmed as a demonic possession but everyone involved was at risk of extreme mental disorder. I think it was filmed in a way that is obviously a demonic possession but then WHY do you have to make everyone mental?

The film seems to present the demonic stuff as fact, so I agree these illnesses aren't written in to explain the events. To me it's more indicative of the outsider perspective trying to label something they don't understand. Like her dead brother being diagnosed with Schizophrenia. That diagnoses is the result of dismissing his possession claims out of hand.

Charlie seemed normal outside of the bird's head thing. Peter seemed normal prior to the extreme events taking place in the film.

I see it more as, that their "curses" were hereditary.. in that they spawned from grandma and her involvement in the occult.

Sure, family can suck you into things you wouldn't otherwise be involved in. I'm still not on board with Charlie going to Hell. It's indicated that she was possessed to some degree from infancy. I don't know that failing to accept Jesus and asking for forgiveness disqualifies one from Heaven. If it doesn't, why the eternal damnation?

 

[FrontNakedChoke]

Sure, family can suck you into things you wouldn't otherwise be involved in. I'm still not on board with Charlie going to Hell. It's indicated that she was possessed to some degree from infancy. I don't know that failing to accept Jesus and asking for forgiveness disqualifies one from Heaven. If it doesn't, why the eternal damnation?

I think you're holding the movie to a standard of theology that's too real.
I think the guy who made it was more concerned about the occult elements, but I could be wrong.

In real life:
- As a believer myself, I believe Charlie would go to heaven because of her age (my opinion)

In Hereditary:
- Everyones mentally ill, cursed, possessed, and going to hell,
because that's wayyyy more metal and it's a horror movie.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

I think you're holding the movie to a standard of theology that's too real.

You may be right, but it's not really something that affected my enjoyment of the film. Just something that pops out during the analysis.

 

[sickc0d3r]

How did the family have no free will?

What I meant by that is they could make choices but it wouldn't affect the outcome. The process began before the kids were born, and they only existed to complete the ritual. Annie tried to abort Peter and failed. Tried to burn him and Charlie in their sleep and couldn't do it. Tried to sacrifice herself and save her family by throwing the book into the fire, and it burned her husband instead.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

I very much enjoyed No Country For Old Men. Something though sticks in my craw that continues to color my overall appreciation. Like going from an A to an A-, more or less. It's that they killed the Protagonist off-screen. Arguments aside, suffice it to say, that wasn't very satisfying as a viewer. Nor do I feel it does the character justice. This feels similar to that in that Annie seemed to transform from struggling mom to sawing off her own head a little too quickly for what I think the audience and character might have deserved.

 

[FrontNakedChoke]

I very much enjoyed No Country For Old Men. Something though sticks in my craw that continues to color my overall appreciation. Like going from an A to an A-, more or less. It's that they killed the Protagonist off-screen. Arguments aside, suffice it to say, that wasn't very satisfying as a viewer. Nor do I feel it does the character justice. This feels similar to that in that Annie seemed to transform from struggling mom to sawing off her own head a little too quickly for what I think the audience and character might have deserved.

0-100 real quick lol

 

[IamStryker]

This is my kind of horror movie. Psychological slow burn up to a great finale.

 

[IamStryker]

Can't say I'd recommend this one. Much longer than it needed to be. Not really clear what's going on/what happened. Not very climactic. Not particularly scary or creepy.

When compared to something like The Babadook, this film just isn't very effective.

Everyone likes different things I guess. I saw the babadook awhile back but this movie creeped me out more than that one did.

 

[IamStryker]

LOL, in fact when I was researching the old manuscripts that talk about this evil shit I felt like I needed to go to a church and get blessed or something. I stumbled on to some sites that actually give directions on how to summon each of these demons and they appear dead serious about it. I mean you are thinking, this is just stuff in the movies but its not, there are luciferians, satanists, whatever name you want to call them by that have secret black masses and do rituals in an attempt to contact evil forces.

These people exist but that doesn't mean any of it really works. None of it is real. No real paranormal activity has ever been proven. It's sort of like bigfoot. If it was real then we would have concrete evidence by now.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

Everyone likes different things I guess. I saw the babadook awhile back but this movie creeped me out more than that one did.

For sure, and this one definitely had some intense scenes. Truth be told, something about a good ghost story is literally hair-raising with me. Babadook did the trick.

 

[FrontNakedChoke]

For sure, and this one definitely had some intense scenes. Truth be told, something about a good ghost story is literally hair-raising with me. Babadook did the trick.

Babadook scared the shit out of me the first time I watched it, but didn't hold the same effect the second/third time. The childrens book was soo creepy though. And the part when she see's her son on the couch...

Both good Horror movies imo, but I think Hereditary is more disturbing and will stick with me longer.

 

[Tufts]

The family drama played well and, while I found it kind of hard to keep my focus, the slow burn of the first two thirds of the story was better than the reveal.

I agree. I liked, and was creeped out, by the first half. Was pretty bored by the second half. Like @Cubo de Sangre - I preferred Babadook...

 

[Tufts]

LOL, in fact when I was researching the old manuscripts that talk about this evil shit I felt like I needed to go to a church and get blessed or something. I stumbled on to some sites that actually give directions on how to summon each of these demons and they appear dead serious about it. I mean you are thinking, this is just stuff in the movies but its not, there are luciferians, satanists, whatever name you want to call them by that have secret black masses and do rituals in an attempt to contact evil forces.

This stuff straight up gives me the heebie jeebies. I participated in a seance with a ouija board when I was ten in the countryside outside of Madrid, and I heard a lot of weird shit outside the window while we were doing it that scared the living crap out of me. In retrospect, it was probably my friend's little brother messing with us, but I still had this moment of realization that things could go very wrong and that I wanted no part of it. Not sure what all I believe is possible, but I like to give this kind of evil a wide berth!

 

[Tufts]

Peter being in shock and just driving home to have his mom find Charlie in the morning was like nails on the chalkboard of my soul.

He never actually looked in the back seat did he? I thought he did a good job of portraying shock. I was a little annoyed that he just went home and went to bed. Made sense that the demon was influencing him.