Hereditary

Hereditary
Original: Darekk2, SVG: Palosirkka · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Name	Hereditary
Director	Ari Aster
Writer	Ari Aster
Starring	Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro
Music	Colin Stetson
Cinematography	Pawel Pogorzelski
Editing	Lucian Johnston
Studio	SquareMoose, Faliro House, Little Lamb
Distributor	A24 (company)
Released	2018
Runtime	127 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English language

Hereditary is a 2018 American psychological horror film written and directed by Ari Aster and produced and distributed by A24 (company). The film stars Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff, and Milly Shapiro in a story about a family confronting grief, trauma, and occult legacies. Critics and scholars compared its themes and techniques to works by Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Ingmar Bergman, and Roman Polanski.

Overview

The narrative follows Annie, an artist, and her family as they cope with the death of her mother and unravel hidden aspects of their ancestry, invoking motifs associated with occultism, seances, and spirit possession. Critics cited influences from The Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby, and the films of David Lynch and Dario Argento while discussing cinematography, sound design, and performance. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and received awards and nominations from organizations including the British Independent Film Awards, the Independent Spirit Awards, and the Saturn Awards.

Genetics and Inheritance Patterns

Although the film is fictional and focuses on supernatural transmission, discussions around "heredity" often reference real-world models such as Mendelian inheritance, autosomal dominant inheritance, autosomal recessive inheritance, X-linked inheritance, and concepts from epigenetics and mitochondrial DNA transmission. Scientific analogies invoke figures like Gregor Mendel, Thomas Hunt Morgan, and concepts formalized by James Watson and Francis Crick in the context of DNA structure. Debates in film theory sometimes juxtapose genetic determinism found in works by Richard Dawkins with cultural determinism seen in scholarship from Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu.

Types and Examples of Hereditary Conditions

In medical contexts, hereditary conditions include single-gene disorders such as Huntington's disease, cystic fibrosis, sickle cell disease, and phenylketonuria; chromosomal disorders like Down syndrome and Klinefelter syndrome; and complex traits influenced by multiple loci, exemplified by type 1 diabetes mellitus and certain forms of autism spectrum disorder. Other inherited syndromes referenced in clinical literature include Marfan syndrome, Ehlers–Danlos syndrome, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and inherited cancer syndromes such as BRCA1/BRCA2-associated breast and ovarian cancer and Lynch syndrome. Historical cases and personalities studied in genetics include Charles Darwin, Gregor Mendel, and patients described by clinicians like Archibald Garrod.

Diagnosis and Genetic Testing

Modern diagnosis employs cytogenetics, biochemical assays, and molecular diagnostics including polymerase chain reaction, next-generation sequencing, whole-exome sequencing, and microarray comparative genomic hybridization. Clinical genetics services are delivered through institutions such as Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins Hospital, and Great Ormond Street Hospital and involve multidisciplinary teams including geneticists, genetic counselors accredited by bodies like the American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics and laboratories accredited by agencies such as College of American Pathologists. Public and private initiatives—Human Genome Project, 1000 Genomes Project, and ClinVar—have influenced variant interpretation and diagnostic yield. Ethical case law and policy precedents from courts and regulators like the United States Supreme Court (e.g., decisions on gene patenting) have shaped access to testing.

Management and Prevention

Management strategies for hereditary disorders range from symptomatic treatment to targeted therapies developed through translational research at centers like National Institutes of Health, Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Preventive measures include carrier screening programs instituted in communities influenced by public health directives from organizations such as the World Health Organization and national agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Advanced interventions include gene therapy trials supported by companies like Novartis and research consortia including CRISPR Therapeutics and The Broad Institute. Reproductive options involve assisted reproductive technologies at clinics affiliated with universities such as Harvard University and University of California, San Francisco, and legal frameworks vary across jurisdictions such as United Kingdom and United States law.

Epidemiology and Population Genetics

Population distribution of hereditary conditions is informed by founder effects, genetic drift, selection, and migration studied in contexts like Ashkenazi Jewish populations, Finnish disease heritage, and indigenous groups documented by researchers affiliated with institutions such as University of Oxford and Harvard Medical School. Epidemiological surveillance utilizes data from agencies including the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and national registries like the UK Biobank. Pioneers in population genetics—Sewall Wright, Ronald Fisher, and J. B. S. Haldane—provided models still applied in contemporary studies of allele frequency, linkage disequilibrium, and admixture examined in projects like Human Genome Diversity Project.

Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues

Ethical, legal, and social implications arise around privacy, informed consent, discrimination, and access to care, debated in forums convened by entities such as the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, World Health Organization, and UNESCO. Landmark legislation and policies include the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act in the United States and regulatory frameworks overseen by agencies like the European Medicines Agency and Food and Drug Administration. Bioethicists such as Peter Singer and Henry T. Greely have contributed to discourse on germline modification, reproductive autonomy, and equitable deployment of genomic medicine. Cultural responses to hereditary narratives have been explored by scholars at institutions including Yale University, Columbia University, and University of Cambridge.

Category:2018 films Category:Psychological horror films Category:Films directed by Ari Aster