Nicholls, Marcus ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-6047-108X, Crewe, Jon ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4108-1551 and Olsen, Dennis (2025) ‘My Mom Was Old’: Occult Gerascophobia1 in Hereditary (2018). Horror Studies, 17 (1). (In Press)

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Abstract

In his 2018 review of Ari Aster’s Hereditary, Peter Bradshaw suggests that the film is ‘partly about a secret fear and loathing of old people that flowers in middle age: fear of becoming old, fear of the genetic message of weakness they have left us, about which we can do nothing’. This article seeks to develop Bradshaw’s reading, examining Hereditary as a horror�coded representation of a particular character’s confrontation with old age. In unpacking this interpretation of the narrative and mise-en-scène, we seek to demonstrate that Hereditary presents a story which is not a demonisation of old age, but a warning against ageist framings

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	Film and television > Screen studies
Date Deposited:	10 Mar 2026
URI:	https://repository.uwl.ac.uk/id/eprint/14720

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