Hereditary

Description

Hereditary is a 2018 American psychological horror film written and directed by Ari Aster in his directorial debut. He later directed Midsommar (2019) and Beau Is Afraid (2023). The film stars Toni Collette, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro, Ann Dowd, and Gabriel Byrne. When Ellen, the matriarch of the Graham family, dies, her daughter's family begins to uncover cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry. The more they discover, the more they find themselves trying to escape the sinister fate they seem to have inherited. The film's score was written, arranged, and produced by Colin Stetson. Aster tried to keep things simple for Stetson regarding the music, but he wanted one thing to be clear: the music had to "feel wrong." Stetson explained that he tried to view the score as a character in the film, the character of the unfolding narrative. With this score, he tried to avoid certain tropes prevalent in film music and used sound sources to achieve different ends. Stetson wanted the music to develop as the narrative progresses.