Hereditary(2018) by Ari Aster
The film Hereditary(2018) is by the same director as Midsommer(2019), Ari Aster, and tells the story of a family, a mother (Annie), father (Steve), son (Peter) and daughter (Charlie). Annie’s mother, an enigmatic and secretive woman, has recently passed away and the family react to the loss in different ways. Annie struggles to process the grief because of the strange and distant relationship she had with her mother, where Peter appears somewhat unphased and Steve is just trying to be supportive. Charlie has an interesting approach to the death of her grandmother. Though the two were very close, she appears to be more inquisitive rather than sad. This becomes evident at the funeral where we see her drawing and paying no attention to the eulogies. She looks at her grandmother’s lifeless body with a vacant expression, biting into a chocolate bar. It is clear that Charlie has some emotional issues.
Initially, it seems that Charlie is the focus of the film. She has the classic ‘troubled child’ vibe that is often used in horror. She doesn’t pay attention in class, prefers making odd contraptions with tools and feels inclined to snip the heads from dead birds. She seems to be a complex character who the audience is eager to unwrap. However, early in the film, Annie forces her to accompany Peter to a party where an unexpected turn of events takes place. Charlie is rushed to hospital after eating chocolate cake laced with nuts, which she is seriously allergic to. As Peter rushes her into the car and to the hospital, Charlie leans out the window, gasping for air and is killed when her head collides with a telegraph pole.
The remainder of the film focuses on Annie and Peter and their fragile relationship with each other as a mother and son. They begin to turn on each other through their grief and this leaves the family vulnerable to the infiltration of a mysterious cult and their evil intentions.
Audio plays a key role in the portrayal of emotion and the increasing tension throughout the film. In terms of music, certain themes are used. Low, menacing drones play, which give the impressing of foreboding and this is used extremely often, including the opening scene of the film and at the funeral. This instrumentation almost feels like it is all knowing, often playing in visually non-dramatic scenes, such as when Charlie is in class. As others around her talk incoherently, the low, brass tone comes in signaling that something significant to the plot is on its way. When Peter and Charlie are on their way to the party, this same music can be heard. It is unclear what the reasoning is behind this, but we know to be on guard. The music implies that even when bad things aren’t necessarily happening at that moment in time, nobody is truly safe, and the audience are given a feeling of anxiety that matches the emotions displayed on screen. To contrast with this, scoring also includes a large amount of high-pitched, dissonant violin. This appears in the scene where Peter is smoking and begins to wheeze and have trouble breathing. He is having a flashback to Charlie’s allergy attack. These sorts of flashbacks are seen in people who have experienced a traumatic event and the flashback can, in itself be traumatic. Music plays a big part in making this evident for the audience. As Peter struggles for breath, shrill violins mimic him, playing almost painful, dissonant tones which fit with the pain Peter is going through.
During the very last scene of the film, we are met with music similar to the music from the cliff scene in Midsommar(2019) which, unlike the rest of the music of Hereditary(2018) does not give us feelings of anxiety. It instead gives a feeling of acceptance and inevitability. As if this was always going to be the fate of Peter and the family and this could not be changed. As the camera pans out, music becomes reminiscent of religious music. The film has themes of religion and cults and this music at the end implies that the cult had succeeded in bringing their deity into the world and into the body of Peter.
Glissando is used in the film, again using shrill and harsh strings. Annie meets a woman names Joan, who is her confidant throughout the film, however we learn that Joan is actually part of the cult and is using Annie to get close to the family. As Annie approaches Joan’s apartment, we hear downward glissando, and Annie sees the ritual set up with pictures of her son. This glissando seems like it could signify how Annie’s emotions change. A woman who she relied on for emotional support has now been revealed as a threat. The music descends along with her control of the situation. This technique is used further on in the film. As Annie discovers that her mother had planned this situation the whole time and that they are all part of an elaborate plan, upwards and downwards glissando play. Upwards may signify her finally understanding what is happening, whereas she still has no control over anything and is now in pure dread, so the downwards glissando is still relevant.
The last musical technique which I noticed was one that particularly stood out for me. This was the use of rhythms which replicate the beating of a heart, Annie’s in particular. Annie deals with large amounts of anxiety throughout the film and in each of the instances where she becomes overwhelmed with this emotion, a thumping drum comes into the mix. In some situations, it gets louder, faster and more intense as Annie becomes more and more stressed. The audience is pushed into feeling her emotions firsthand. The heartbeat rhythm plays when Charlie has her allergy attack. The musicals choices made for this film are deeply descriptive and give the audience such a vivid idea of what the character is experiencing. This technique is subtle and may almost not be noticed directly because it fits so naturally with the narrative and visuals, but the effects are still evident.
There are many specific sounds which are given purpose and meaning within the film. Sounds which would not generally be scary in real life are transformed to fill the audience with dread. Possibly the most infamous sound from the film is Charlie’s tongue click. Charlie has a habit of clicking her tongue and does this often through the first part of the film. This noise becomes her signature and the audience and characters associate it with her. This little quirk gives Charlie an unsettling aura, however the real scary part is when this sound comes back to haunt Charlie’s family after she dies. In one scene, Peter is asleep in bed and we hear a faint tongue click. Peter stirs and questions what has just been heard. There is dead, suspenseful silence before the noise happens again, this time close-up, as if right next to Peter’s ear. This is an example of the suspense/startle technique. This happens to Annie as she drives home after the séance at Jeans apartment. It comes from the back seat of the car, where Charlie was killed. The sound not only represents Charlie, but also the supernatural.
Another sound which takes the same role, is the sound of scribbling. Charlie was often drawing in her notebook and so this became another associative sound, which used the uncanny to strike terror into the audience. A scene where this is used is when Annie finds Charlie’s notebook and discovers that she can communicate with her from beyond the grave. Before we see the notebook, Annie is downstairs and along with her, we hear a faint scribbling. Hearing it before seeing what it is so effective, because it plays on the fear of the unknown. We know vaguely what the sound is but are unsure of what exactly Annie will find as she walks up the stairs to Charlie’s room. This is a fantastic use of suspenseful audio.
Something that I picked up on, which I am unsure the significance of was the use of the sound of cicadas. This often played in scenes of unnerving tranquility. In one way it seems to give a sense that the world around is oblivious to the horrors that the family are dealing with. That life goes on. However, on the other hand, it often is used in scenes shot inside the home. I feel that this makes it seem like the family are never alone, even in their own home. It almost feels like someone or something is always out there looking in from outside. This theory is backed up when we see strange people standing watching the house.
Annie and Peter both suffer huge amounts of psychological trauma and damage throughout the film. She loses her mother and daughter in a short amount of time, and he is partly responsible for the death of his sister. There are several audio techniques which are used to back this up throughout the film using sound and silence. When Annie attends the grief counseling group, she enters the room and the voices of the people are muffled. She seems so disconnected with her environment. She is numb and doesn’t know how to feel about the death of her mother.
In the scene where Charlie dies, as soon as Charlie’s wheezing stops and the car comes to a halt, Peter clearly realises what has happened, and everything is deadly quiet apart from his breathing. This gives a sense of how alone he is in the situation. He faintly says ‘Charlie, are you ok?’ to which he is met with total silence. We see nothing apart from his face. We don’t see what has happened to Charlie, but from what we hear, it is clear. This is both deeply disturbing and very effective. I feel that if we were shown straight away the gruesome scene of Charlie’s decapitated body, any sense of imagination would be lost. It is what we create from the small pieces of information that we are given that is truly terrifying. This deathly quiet continues, and as he drives back to the house, where we hear the cicadas and trees rustling (theories on this above.) Peter walks to bed, his footsteps are in time to the ticking of the clock, as if he is in a trance. The ticking may also indicate that the stopwatch has now begun, and the real story is about to begin.
Off screen sound is used again instantly, as Peter wakes the next morning and hears his mother leaving for work. We hear her from his perspective, and it is evident that he and the audience are the only ones so far who know what has just happened. This gives a tremendous sense of suspense as we, along with Peter, wait for Annie to get to her car. We hear her open the car and suddenly she begins a blood-curdling wail. It seems so real and raw, yet animalistic and makes you cringe to hear. This wailing is carried through 3 separate scenes with only the audio merging from one scene to the next. This gives the impression that through the entire time, including time between scenes, she is crying.
Again, further on when Annie appears to be possessed by Charlie, she lets out a horrible prolonged groan. This has the same animalistic nature, but in a different way. It is human, but so not human at the same time. It is very uncomfortable to hear.
The last thing that I picked up on which I find relevant and interesting is the use of gross-out and jarring sound effects. Though this is generally a somewhat unconventional horror film, it is not lacking in gore and nasty audio. A lot of the gore sounds are amped right up, including when Charlie cuts the pigeon’s head off. The sound of the scissors is uncomfortably loud in the mix. When Annie visits Joan, they do a séance in which Joan gets her deceased son to write with chalk on a chalkboard, the screeching sound of chalk against slate that we all know and love is extremely jarring, making the audience wince in pain. The crunch and smack of Charlie’s head colliding with the post and then later on, the buzzing of flies on her decomposing head are shudder worthy. However, the undoubtable winner of gross-out sounds in this film appears during the climax, when Peter goes to the attic and hears a strange, wet ripping and tearing sound. We don’t see at first what it is, however the camera turns upwards to reveal Annie slicing her own head off with a piece of wire. Peter freaks out and jumps out of the window and the camera follows him outside. From there we hear Annie’s head thud and roll across the floor.
Hereditary(2018) is a film which uses sound extremely creatively to convey emotion, imply events and cause suspense and terror in the audience.
