New to Netflix on January 15, 2025, Ari Aster’s Hereditary is arguably one of, if not the scariest feature film debut ever recorded. The slow-burning psychological thriller begins as a compelling domestic drama before showing its devious hand as a demonic possession movie steeped in religious ritual. Apart from Toni Collette’s award-worthy performance, the taboo-shattering horror movie is rife with heartstopping and pulse-pounding moments that are impossible to shake off.
With a new audience set to experience Hereditary for the first time on Netflix, it’s worth echoing the abject terror instilled in those who saw the film upon release in 2018. To be blunt, Hereditary is not for the faint of heart of causal horror fans. The film is made for hardcore horror connoisseurs who require difficult viewing challenges that push the genre’s visual and dramatic limits forward. As such, it’s time to reflect on Hereditary’s most unsettling scene.
What Is ‘Hereditary’ About?
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Release Date
June 8, 2018
Runtime
2h 7m
Ari Aster wrote and directed Hereditary, an elevated A24 horror film that drew immense critical acclaim. The story follows the Graham family, who are grieving deeply after the death of the family matriarch, Ellen (Pat Barnett Carr). Ellen’s 13-year-old daughter, Annie (Toni Collette), tries to keep her family intact following Ellen’s death, which deeply affects Annie’s daughter and youngest child, Charlie (Milly Shapiro).
As Annie attends therapy and digs through Ellen’s old belongings, she becomes wracked by increasing pain, grief, PTSD, and paranoia. Meanwhile, Annie’s husband Steve (Gabriel Byrne) learns Ellen’s grave has been violated but does not inform Annie, so as not to upset her further. Needing time to decompress, Annie implores her 16-year-old son Peter to take Charlie to a party with him. Peter reluctantly agrees, inciting the film’s most unnerving and gorily graphic scene.
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In Hereditary, tragedy begets tragedy. Annie’s crushed soul and aching heart following Ellen’s death is nothing compared to what transpires next. At the party, Peter ignores Charlie and leaves her unattended. Charlie unwittingly eats a piece of cake with walnuts in it, triggering her nut allergy and causing her to go into severe anaphylactic shock.
Stoned and unsure of what to do, Peter rushes Charlie to the hospital in his car. When Charlie puts her head out the window to breathe fresh air, Peter narrowly avoids hitting a dead deer in the middle of the road. Swerving at full speed, Charlie’s head is abruptly decapitated by a telephone pole. The legitimate jaw-dropping shocker continues to haunt viewers for several reasons.
How Charlie’s Death Continues to Haunt Viewers
The first detail about Charlie’s death that continues to terrify viewers relates to the taboo of killing children in a horror movie. Long viewed as a major “no-no,” the idea of a 13-year-old child dying in such a horrific fashion is hard to stomach. There’s a reason why children remain unharmed throughout the history of horror cinema (with a few exceptions), and Hereditary pushes the limits of what is accepted. Moreover, Charlie was the closest family member to Ellen, making her death even more tragic.
The second aspect of Charlie’s death that remains so upsetting is Peter’s reaction. Stunned, numbed, and petrified, Peter picks up Charlie’s headless corpse, loads it into the car, and quietly drives home as if nothing had happened. Worse yet, Peter tells no one and heads to his room, completely calloused to the fact his 13-year-old sister died in such a grisly fashion. When Peter awakes the next morning and listens to Annie discover Charlie’s decapitated body in her car, the audible cries and helpless yelps are far scarier than anything visually depicted onscreen.
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Then, just as audiences suspect they’ve been spared the bloody details of Charlie’s demise, Aster toys with expectations once again. The scariest moment in Hereditary comes moments later when a smashing close-up of Charlie’s head is shown in broad daylight hours later, with a swarm of flies picking at the little girl’s beheaded face. It’s raw, risky, and edited in a way that sends an undeniable jolt down one’s spine.
Beyond the taboo nature of killing a child and the graphic disturbance of Charlie’s death, it’s made more terrifying due to the non-supernatural. As the film progresses after Charlie’s death, Aster tips his hand and reveals the movie to have a supernatural Satanic bent dealing with demonic possession. While Charlie’s death sets up the paranormal elements, the death alone feels like a real family tragedy that could happen to anyone.
Toni Collete’s Performance Leads to Other Horrifying Moments in ‘Hereditary’
While Aster deserves credit for executing the sleight of hand, the movie belongs to Toni Collette in one of the biggest Oscar snubs on record. Hereditary is scary because it begins as a straightforward domestic drama that slowly devolves into pure evil. This allows viewers to identify with the characters first and foremost, so by the time the horrifying scenes occur, genuine care and sympathy are fostered for the Graham family.
Although Charlie’s death scene is the most shocking, Annie’s dinner table discussion following Charlie’s death is the most memorable and heartbreaking. Toni Collette’s tour-de-force performance is not only a reminder of her immense talent, but in the context of the movie, it marks Annie’s psychological breaking point of no return. The thematic grief, pain, anger, regret, resentment, and ugly truthfulness are crystallized at that moment, with Collette elevating Annie’s character far above the page. It’s impossible not to feel for Annie during the dinner scene, which only makes the subsequent terror hit harder.
If the dinner table scene remains the centerpiece of Hereditary’s performative strength, childhood death looms as the movie’s scariest specter. It is said that no parent should experience the death of a child, a terrifying theme permeating Hereditary. Following Charlie’s tragically gory demise, Annie begins to blame Peter to the point that she dreams of lighting him ablaze while he sleeps in bed. At one point, the dreams blur into reality, leading to another mortifying conflagration as the final act delivers one hair-raising moment after another.
With Hereditary added to Netflix, Charlie’s unspeakable beheading continues to petrify new and repeat viewers, this writer included. However, the humanity Toni Collette gives Annie makes the non-human aspects of the story resonate with unshakable results. The movie is truly as special as it is scary. Hereditary joins Netflix on January 15, 2025.
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