When the secretive matriarch of the Graham family dies, her daughter’s family find themselves haunted by the sinister fate they have inherited. A film by Ari Aster, starring Toni Collette, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro, Ann Dowd, and Gabriel Byrne.

Miniature artist Annie (Toni Collette) and her psychiatrist husband Steve (Gabriel Byrne), live with their children, Peter (Alex Wolff) and Charlie (Milly Shapiro). Steve asks Peter if Charlie slept in her room last night, but Peter is unsure. Steve finds Charlie asleep in the treehouse and wakes her up, telling her to come down to the car because they are running late for the funeral.

The family attends the funeral of Annie’s mother, Ellen, where Annie delivers her eulogy. Annie describes her mother as a secretive and private woman with her own rituals, friends, and anxieties. Upon returning home, Annie feels strangely detached, as if she should be sadder than she is.

At home, Annie rifles through a cardboard box of her mother’s belongings, finding an old photo album and a book titled “Notes on Spiritualism” with a cryptic note from Ellen tucked inside. As she turns to leave the room, she sees Ellen’s silhouette standing in the murky darkness. Startled, she flips on the light, and the silhouette vanishes.

Charlie displays eccentric behavior. She snips off the head of a dead pigeon she discovers on a bush in the schoolyard with a pair of scissors and tucks it into her coat pocket when no one is looking. However, as she turns around, she catches the eye of a mysterious woman standing across the street, who gives her a knowing wave.

One day, Annie notices the door to her mother’s room is open. She asks Steve if he entered the room, but he denies it. They go to investigate, and Steve locks the door to prevent anyone from entering. Then, Steve receives a call from the cemetery informing him that vandals have desecrated Ellen’s grave. When Annie inquires about the call, Steve deceptively claims it was about a billing issue.

Annie lies to Steve, telling him she is going to a movie, but instead attends a bereavement support group. There, she reveals her troubled childhood, admitting that she and her mother had a strained relationship, despite Annie’s love for her. Her father suffered from psychotic depression and starved himself to death when she was a baby. Her older brother had schizophrenia and hanged himself in her mother’s bedroom at the age of sixteen, leaving a note accusing their mother of putting people inside him. During her mother’s final yearss, Annie moved her in to live with her family. Her mother seemed to be more interested in her granddaughter, Charlie, and Annie allowed this, despite feeling guilty about it. Annie feels responsible for everything that has happened.

Peter asks Annie permission to borrow a car for an evening party. Annie agrees, on the condition that he invite his sister, Charlie. Later, Annie finds Charlie wandering barefoot and coatless near the woods behind their house. Worried, she forces Charlie to accompany Peter to the party, hoping that she will enjoy playing with the other children.

At the party, Pater wants some private moments, he tells Charlie to eat chocolate cake while he awaits her. Unaware that the cake contains walnuts, Charlie, who has a severe nut allergy, experiences anaphylactic shock. As Peter rushes her to the nearest hospital, Charlie leans out of the window, gasping for air. When Peter swerves the car to avoid a dead deer in the road, Charlie’s head collides with a telephone pole.

HEREDITARY, a psychological supernatural horror film written and directed by Ari Aster in his feature directorial debut, explores the trauma of the past and the horrifying secret of heritage through the story of Annie, a miniature artist.

The first half of the film captivates and engages viewers with its supernatural events. The decapitation scene mesmerizes and stands out as one of the most iconic in horror film history. However, the filmmaker fails to maintain the tension after that scene, and the film devolves into a formulaic horror film that has been done many times before. The film’s conclusion is also too simple and straightforward, leaving no room for interpretation, which could have been more rewarding and compelling.

HEREDITARY premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on 21 January 2018. The film was theatrically released in the United States on 8 June. It grossed over $82 million against a $10 million budget.