A miniaturist artist loses her secretive mother. After the death, she discovers disturbing truths about her family's history. It hits her first as grief, then as horror and finally as something that can't be explained as coincidence. I feel like this is the most devastating horror film in decades.
Hereditary is a 2018 drama, horror and mystery film directed by Ari Aster. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (1 psychology, 2 narrative and 1 cinematography), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Eraserhead uses several of the same techniques.
Showing the human body being changed, damaged or falling apart. The horror works because you imagine it happening to your own body, and it often stands for mental suffering.
How this film uses it
Aster's main tool for horror is the body. He shows the physical reality of death in detail. He shows grief taking over a body against its will, and he makes the body the place where the supernatural stakes its claim. The film's most devastating moments are physical events with nothing supernatural about them. Horror films usually keep you at a safe distance from how fragile the body is. This one doesn't.
Where to see it
The accident aftermath. The film holds on the physical reality longer than any audience is ready for. You are left with no doubt about how fragile a body is.
Spending a long time on normal life, character and atmosphere before any real threat arrives. Dread builds bit by bit, so the climax feels inevitable and devastating when it comes.
How this film uses it
Aster spends the first hour on grief, family dysfunction and the fine detail of how the Grahams relate to each other. Only then does the supernatural horror become undeniable. Because of that buildup, the horror lands on an audience that is already raw. The film has made you care about these characters, so you have real feelings at stake.
Where to see it
The family dinner sequence. Nothing supernatural happens in the tension between Annie and Peter. The film builds dread out of ordinary home life before it reaches for any horror-movie tools.
Shooting straight down on a scene from above. The view flattens the space into shapes, makes people look small and can feel like a god or security camera watching.
How this film uses it
Aster uses shots from directly overhead to show the Graham house as a built structure. They shrink the characters into figures in a miniature, which ties in with Annie's work as a miniaturist. They also suggest that someone is watching and arranging the family's fate from a place they can't reach. The overhead angle hints at an intelligence looking down on them.
Where to see it
The overhead shots of the house interior. The family look like figures in a model. The angle suggests that the place they call home was already designed by someone else.
Arranging scenes the way a dream moves, where one image leads to the next by feeling or association. Events don't follow normal cause and effect.
How this film uses it
The final act runs entirely on nightmare logic. The rules of space break down, time becomes uncertain and the layout of the house changes. Aster moves into a mode where you can't reason things out. The events still follow a logic, just a different one. The shift is on purpose. By this point, the film has stopped arguing anything and is putting you through an experience.
Where to see it
The attic sequence and its aftermath. The film drops normal cause and effect. What replaces it is dread that follows the rules of the worst dream.
Questions
Hereditary: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does Hereditary use?
CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in Hereditary (2018): Body Horror, Slow Burn Horror Pacing, Overhead Composition and Dream Logic Structure.
Who directed Hereditary?
Ari Aster directed Hereditary, released in 2018. CineCode also covers Midsommar (2019), Beau Is Afraid (2023), Eddington (2025).
What films are similar to Hereditary?
Films that share techniques with Hereditary include Eraserhead (1977), I Saw the TV Glow (2024), The Birds (1963), Mulholland Drive (2001).
