[Editorial] Familial Dysfunction and Intergenerational Female Dynamics: Determinism in Hereditary (2018)

*Warning, this editorial contains spoilers for Hereditary*

My first experience of watching Hereditary had a profound effect upon me. I left the cinema reeling; I felt as though I had shared the Graham family’s trauma, and although I had survived the ordeal, the shock stayed with me for weeks afterwards.

The global reception to Hereditary has been remarkably divided. The wide array of articles, with an equally diverse range of theories about the meanings behind the story and its associated lore, is a reflection not only of this division, but also of the impact the film has continued to have since its release in 2018.

As I processed my own extraordinary reaction, I appreciated the ambiguity of Ari Aster’s masterpiece. One of the many possible interpretations that resonates with me is the idea of determinism in the context of familial dysfunction; particularly in relation to the female inter-generational dynamics. I examined the different roles played by the female and male members of the three generations in the Graham family in relation to the perpetuating recurrence of the wounds and damaging behaviours of the preceding generation.

The theme of free will versus fate is clear in Hereditary. Seen in this context, this is the theory that in a dysfunctional family, it is impossible to avoid repeating the same harmful patterns learned from our parents. Through this lens, Paimon represents the psychological demons, the inescapable legacy that Annie’s mother Ellen leaves to her daughter and inevitably, to her grandchildren.

The fate of Annie's family is predetermined.  Annie's attempts to make sense of her past trauma, to break the cycle and to take control of her own life are futile. Her actions inevitably lead to the destruction of her family, because although Annie’s mother has made the bargain with Paimon, Annie pays the ultimate price.

Annie’s vocation as a miniaturist is a possible attempt to control the impact of her past traumas. In her intricate set pieces, each depicting a harrowing landmark in her life, Annie manipulates and diminishes the figures and their environment, attempting to distance herself from the pain associated with their memory. Sadly, Annie cannot control the effect that these past traumas have had upon her and on her family, or the effect they will have on their future.

The opening sequence shows a series of Annie’s masterpieces. As the camera pans out, a sleeping figure is revealed to be the ‘real’ Peter. This is the first of many clues of what is to come; Peter is depicted as a passive figurine, completely under the control of an unknown entity, only animated by the appearance of his father in the doorway.

With this ‘Russian Doll’-like visual effect, Aster introduces the first hint that this is not Annie’s world. An unseen being is controlling the Graham family, just as Annie manipulates the figures in her miniature dioramas. This is an early clue to Paimon’s influence; it could also be seen as a nod to the audience from Aster himself, as the creator (and manipulator) of the film’s universe and its inhabitants.

Although Paimon’s identity and purpose is only revealed later, his influence is evident from the start. Members of his unholy congregation attend Ellen’s funeral, listening as Annie admits  they are part of a world that her mother kept hidden from her. Annie reveals that her mother was secretive, and had ‘her own private rituals’, creating a distance between the two women, and putting a strain on their relationship.

Just as Paimon remains an invisible but powerful presence throughout Hereditary, Ellen exerts her influence over Annie even after death. With the passing of her mother, Annie has inherited her matriarchal role. Although they were estranged before Ellen died, Annie cannot escape the dual legacy that her mother left her: the family’s dysfunction, and the terms of the bargain that her mother made with Paimon. Ellen sacrificed her daughter’s future to Paimon in exchange for earthly riches: Annie’s fate is already sealed.

In a note to her daughter, Ellen assures Annie that the sacrifices and pain that she endures will be worth it in the end. There is a deep irony here. Ellen implies that, just as generations of parents have made personal sacrifices for the sake of their children, Ellen has suffered personal losses so that the next generation of her family will inherit wealth and riches. In reality, Ellen rejected her family in favour of her matriarchal position within the cult. Photos in Ellen’s album show her as joyful and vibrant, surrounded by love, and revered by her adopted cult family. The mother that Annie knew was distant, disconnected from her biological family; Ellen’s true connection was with the cult family, strangers to Annie, and yet an invisible and influential force in her life.

Ellen’s presence is always with her daughter. Annie first catches a glimpse of her mother as an apparition in the shadows of her studio on the day of her funeral. In the group therapy scene, as Annie opens her heart to reveal her family’s troubled history, she stares at the one empty seat in the circle; is this seat reserved for her mother?

Annie chooses to shoulder the grief of her mother’s death alone. She reveals to the group that she doesn’t want to put pressure on her family to support her. Annie pushes her children away to protect them from the emotional damage resulting from her own trauma, and from the mental illness that appears to be inherent in her bloodline. Ironically, her attempts to protect them from her own pain by distancing herself from them only serves to widen the emotional chasm between her on the one side, and her husband and children on the other. 

Annie’s inability to maintain a functional relationship with her children and husband repeats the pattern initiated by Ellen in her role as mother and spouse. While Annie is aware of the dysfunction in her family, and of the harm that this has caused, she feels powerless to resolve the situation. Annie admits that she feels like “it’s all ruined’ and at first claims responsibility, before correcting herself: she says, “I am not to blame, but I am blamed”, but she is unable to articulate what she is to blame for. 

Battling the literal and psychological demons passed on to her by her mother, Annie tries to save her children from this doomed inheritance. After failing to stop her son from being born, she prevented her mother from having any contact with Peter as a child, thus temporarily evading Ellen’s attempts to offer Peter to Paimon as a host. Despite this, Annie later effectively hands over the newborn Charlie to Ellen, unwittingly facilitating the possession, despite Ellen’s open lament that Charlie wasn’t a boy.

Inevitably, Annie’s attempts to end the familial dysfunction only serve to increase the carnage, and eventually lead to the destruction of the Graham family.

Annie’s sleepwalking episode, during which she douses her children in petrol and awakes holding a lit match, is perhaps an attempt to save her children from their grandmother’s damaging influence. This purification by fire is later repeated: trying to banish Charlie’s malevolent spirit by burning her book, and to sacrifice herself to the flames, she unwittingly sacrifices her husband instead. Just as her mother’s actions led to her father’s suicide, Annie too is responsible for Steve’s death.Paimon demands these sacrifices; not only to secure a host, but also perhaps to isolate Ellen, and then Annie, and to ensure their complete loyalty to him alone.

Ellen’s book shows Paimon as a male. However, Paimon was originally a Mesopotamian goddess, and is often depicted with a female head. The recurring theme of beheading demonstrates this disconnect between the female identity in the male body. Charlie beheads a bird, attaching its head to one of her eerie creations, perhaps in a futile attempt to reconcile two incompatible objects in one entity. The three generations of the Graham family surrender their female aspect in supplication to the patriarchy: Charlie is later decapitated, while Annie and Ellen are both beheaded; Annie by her own hand. In the final scene, it is Charlie’s crowned head that adorns Paimon’s effigy. It is Charlie who is initially offered to Paimon as a host, and it is only through Charlie that Paimon ultimately secures his male host in Peter.

On the day of Ellen’s funeral, Charlie, as Paimon, asks her mother who will look after her when Annie dies. Charlie is crestfallen when Annie replies that her father and brother will care for her. Paimon’s disappointment is obvious in Charlie’s reaction; in that moment, he understands that neither Steve nor Peter is strong enough to give him the care and nurturing that he needs to claim his throne, if he remains in Charlie’s body. Or perhaps it is simply because he knows their fate, and recognises that after their demise, Charlie, as a female child, will be vulnerable in a patriarchal society, and his ascension is uncertain. Perhaps it is at this moment that Paimon sets his sights on Peter instead.

Although Paimon prefers a male host, it is the actions and sacrifices of the matriarchs of the Graham family; first Ellen, then Annie, that enable the final possession. The male family members are little more than ‘passengers’; their passivity leads them to their own doom. Annie’s brother only evades his mother’s attempts to ‘put people inside him’ by suicide; her father chooses the same escape. Similarly, death proves the only salvation for Annie’s husband Steve. Even Peter attempts to follow the path chosen by his forebearers by leaping through the attic window.

Although Peter is Paimon’s target host, he is one of the most passive characters in the film. Perhaps it is this passivity that makes it easy for Paimon to manipulate him. He is a ‘typical’ teenage boy, interested only in girls and getting high. His teacher unwittingly alerts Peter to what is to come; but Peter is oblivious as the class discusses Heracles, whose fatal flaw is his arrogance, and who dismisses the signs of his own impending doom which could have otherwise saved him.

Peter takes Charlie to the party at Annie’s insistence, but instead of keeping an eye on his sister, he leaves her on her own while he goes off to smoke pot with his friends. Peter’s neglect indirectly leads to his sister’s anaphylactic reaction and subsequent devastating decapitation. In its aftermath, Peter is shocked into paralysis. When he finally stirs himself from this paralysis, his reaction leaves the viewer stunned, incredulous. Peter drives home with Charlie’s headless body in the back of the car, he creeps into the house and crawls into bed, hiding from the evidence of his guilt. This agonizing, drawn-out scene ends with the camera fixed on Peter’s blank gaze, while the sound of Annie’s raw, primal scream drifts through the window, as she makes her gruesome discovery. During the heart-rending family dinner scene, Peter again denies responsibility, shifting the burden of guilt onto his mother for forcing him to take Charlie to the party in the first place.

Later, Joan has only to call to Peter from a distance to force him to “get out” of his own body to make way for Charlie/Paimon; the violent possession scene in the classroom is quick and painful, taking him completely by surprise. This is in contrast to Paimon’s attempt to possess Peter’s teenage uncle, who struggled with the voices in his head long enough to be diagnosed with schizophrenia, and whose final, desperate act of defiance was suicide.

Peter’s passivity could be seen as a behaviour learned from his father. Steve stands by and watches as his wife mentally disintegrates before him. When he learns that his mother-in-law’s grave has been desecrated, his first instinct is that Annie may have been responsible. Rather than talk to his wife about his suspicion, he approaches her psychiatrist behind her back. Steve struggles alone against what he sees as the biggest threat to his family: the multiple mental illnesses that plague his wife’s bloodline, including dementia, schizophrenia, and psychotic depression.

During the devastating dinner scene, Steve looks on, helpless as the confrontation between Annie and Peter explodes, ultimately destroying their relationship; just as Annie’s father was a powerless witness to his son’s destruction at his wife’s hands. After Peter and Annie abandon the battlefield of the family dinner table, Steve remains sitting amongst the ruins, alone and in despair.

Steve and Peter are reluctant participants in Annie’s séance; it is through Annie that Charlie/Paimon is summoned. Steve ultimately becomes, literally, a burnt offering to Paimon. When Peter is eventually forced to confront his own fate, witness to the horror of his mother’s self-decapitation, he tries to repeat his late uncle’s escape by throwing himself through the window.

The male family members seek a final release from their curse through death. For the women in the family, death provides no such comfort. They are bound inextricably to the terms of the bargain made with Paimon even after their mortal life has ended. Both Annie and Ellen return as headless corpses, while Charlie returns, summoned by her own mother, to bear Paimon in Peter’s physical body.

As the possession is finally completed, Peter’s soul is extinguished and he ascends to participate in the final ritual, facilitated by the supplicating, headless corpses of the women who sacrificed everything to lead him to this moment, his body nothing but a vessel for the spirit of his sister and the demon Paimon.

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