A Love Letter To The ‘Hereditary’ Soundtrack And The Wild Memes It Inspired
Hannibal Buress staring at his hands has never seemed so powerful.
Amongst the many, many things that make Ari Aster’s Hereditary one of the most original and impressive horror films of the last decade, special credit must go to the score.
Composed by Colin Stetson, a one-time member of Arcade Fire and Bon Iver’s touring band, the music is menacing and beautiful in equal measure. Haunting, reverb-laden saxophone parts layer over atmospheric grumbling, producing towering tracks that resemble hymnals above everything else; distorted tributes to the dark lord Paimon.
And though the entire score rules, the real dark gem is ‘Reborn’, the piece of music that closes out the film. If you’ve seen Hereditary, you will be able to immediately recall the haunting image that the film ends on, and the score is responsible for a lot of its power. That final scene is a coronation of sorts — a becoming — and the track elevates the transformation to the world of the mythic.
It slaps, basically.
Little wonder then that over the years since Hereditary was released, the score has made a transition over into the world of memes. First, there was that terrifying mash-up of Doja Cat’s ‘Say So’ and the rumbling of Stetson’s work. Then, Hereditary met the world of Eric Andre, as a simple meme depicting Hannibal Buress staring at his hands became cosmic in its intensity, thanks to the addition of ‘Reborn’.
From that humble origin, the meme quickly took off, and TikTok was flooded with wild short films, all scored to the eerie howls of one of the most menacing pieces of music released in the last year. I mean, this compilation of the best Hereditary memes is a work of art in its own right, filled with tonal left turns and beautiful shrieks of surreality.
It just goes to show — Paimon’s influence is everywhere.