Hereditary (2018)

 I reckon if you worship Paimon, one of the kings of hell, devout to him, rejecting The Father, Son, and The Holy Spirit, bowing naked with a smile, looking for pleasures of the flesh and great wealth, privilege, and success, then "Hereditary" (2018) has a happy ending. I guess if you aren't a big fan of watching a family destroyed thanks to the cultist grandma, having passed prior to the film's start, your reaction might differ.

Not a fun experience, I do admit I was glad this was over once the credits role. I acknowledge its power, though. Toni Collette, as the tortured mother, losing her troubled daughter to an accidental decapitation when she purposely (or does she?) eats a candy bar with nuts, causing her to have an allergic reaction swelling the inside of her throat, resulting in her sticking her head out the window, her brother (who was driving) swerving to miss something in the middle of the road, the car directing towards a power pole that was responsible for the tragic death.

I admit that there was never a time I felt this family's trajectory towards anything but a horrible result was in doubt. They were always fucking doomed. When a letter from the dead mother apologizes for what will happen to her daughter and family at the behest of her religion and deity (well, she doesn't come right out in her letter and say that but the photo books of her peeps all enjoying their fellowship hints towards that), the end for them was set in motion and nothing they could do would change what ultimately happens.

You know there are plenty of bodies without heads by film's end. Director Ari Aster's use of building miniatures and how they relate to the family of the film is quite a creative touch, and how he films figures from a distance, slightly darkened, is damned eerie. And the obvious overwhelming grief of the loss, not to mention, the rage and frustrations of a family unable to deal with emotional tumult that rents them apart--granted the supernatural destiny grandma decided for them doesn't help matters--certainly is a drag. That's the point: Aster's film isn't supposed to leave us feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. I felt like downing a whole bottle of Jack, collapsing in bed in the fetal position, and weeping until I fell asleep.

Poor Gabriel Byrne just couldn't halt the inevitable destruction, while his wife realized too late she couldn't, either. But Ann Dowd's Joan sure was glad Alex Wolff's Peter eventually "went away" so their deity could take his body. Charlie (Milly Shapiro) "sacrificed" so that Paimon would emerge for his worshippers, nurtured and cultivated by grandma, much to the consternation of Collette's Annie (who doesn't realize until it's too late, she's been had by kindly Joan, encouraging her to participate in a "seance", using a particular text that conjures Charlie after some time dead)...it all seems to go according to plan. When Joan tells Peter to leave, I guess it was only a matter of time before all her hard work paid off.

So a body going up in flames, found by his mortified son who was forced to slam his face into his school desk, a possession causing the possessed to piano wire her head off, a rotted corpse found in the attic, and an ant-covered decaying face of a decapitated head: Aster knows how to pack his film with a wallop here and there. 

I do think this is an incredible horror film, even if it is just depressing. And I'm sure I'll never watch it again. But, hey, if you love you some Paimon, perhaps you will "Hail" as his followers do, along with two dead bodies up in the treehouse of Charlie. 5/5

To reemphasize the miniatures, the detail on them is astounding. And the use of "code words" to indicate the family are headed for something awful. Paimon, on the other hand, seems to come off swell.