Hereditary

My first movie review- or whatever this is. I just know that I just watched Hereditary, and I have thoughts. *Spoilers ahead* My first pertinent thought about this film is that I never- I mean never- have to close my eyes during horror movies but this one made me cringe right out of my skin. I mean, the scenes are so action filled and then each high energy scene is then followed by an abrupt cool-down which is excellent use of timing on director Ari Aster's behalf.

This movie messed with my head. A lot of the times when watching mind-boggling films, you're waiting for the plot twist that makes it all make sense. Examples of movies with these sort of plot twists are The Prestige, Fight Club, and famously, The Sixth Sense. However, Aster does something different in his films where the plot doesn't necessarily twist, but simply "resolves" itself by winding up the unlikely circumstances that were already brewing, and concluding them with little to no explanation for a what or a why.

In Hereditary, all signs point to main character and mom, Annie, suffering from DID or another similar mental health issue as earlier in the movie it was indicated that parts of her family have suffered from issues such as DID, depression, and schizophrenia. In most mind-boggle movies, all signs point to the supernatural with an underlying sense of something more mundane being in the works. Aster does the opposite- suggesting to the audience that Annie may have a mental disorder, while in actuality the more sinister events seem to be the reality.

If you're looking for an explanation on what happened at the end of Hereditary, look no further. Annie's mother was involved in a cult which worships Paimon, who needs an available male human host to control. Annie's mother probably set up the conditions in early childhood for her daughter to be exposed to an early death, as Paimon could not inhabit her body and needed a healthy male host. Once Paimon leaves her daughter's body, he enters Annies, jumping through the family members until Paimon can live inside of Peter, the final goal for his host given by the cult from the beginning of the film and presumably this family's life. At the end of the movie, you can see the cult worshipping Paimon in Peter's old body after he jumped out of the window of the attic and died, leaving a husk of a body for Paimon to inhabit.

Not the best explanation, but the only one I can provide based on my understanding. Sit tight and I'll have more posts out to you guys soon. Welcome to write this down.

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