Ari Aster’s debut horror film Hereditary (2018) follows a contemporary American family of four, and the mother (Annie)’s journey of discovery into her own recently dead mother’s connections to a demonic cult. The cult worships Paimon, a demon drawn from an obscure 17th-century grimoire (a book of enchantment) called The Lesser Key of Solomon (named after the biblical King Solomon, its purported author).1From the book, Aster selects The Sigil of Paimon, a circular pattern engraved with a unique spiral (a sigil being a symbol possessing magic power) as an alternative to pentagrams and ‘upside-down crosses’ — cliches that he wanted to avoid.2In the film, as Annie says her final farewell at her mother’s open casket, she notices the sign of the sigil on her mother’s necklace. In blurry baby photos and during scenes in which Annie breaks down to a confidant, black herbs can be seen in baby bottles and cups of tea. In another episode Annie’s son, Peter, speeds past a lamppost in his car, and for a moment the camera lingers on the post and we see that it bears the curious circular pattern of the sigil.In the screenplay the sigil is mentioned ten times, and it is only after ninety-eight pages that its significance as the Sigil of Paimon is revealed. Thereafter the sigil is referenced much more in tandem with traditional horror imagery: dried blood, crawling flies, and bloodied symbolism. Similarly, the black herbs featured throughout the film have been subsequently explained by audiences as the Dittany of Crete herb, a mediterranean healing herb, which in the occult is said to make one susceptible to demonic possession.3 Aster describes these images as ‘shards and fragments’ of clues hidden throughout his film to allow the audience to mirror the journey of the characters in uncovering the occult.4Occultism and demonology have been a feature of mainstream horror since its inception; modern classics include Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973), both of which are centred on young women possessed by demonic spirits. The demonic elements in Rosemary’s Baby are presented with great subtlety, through abstract images such as a seemingly innocuous chocolate mousse, which is only understood as threatening when the broader demonic workings at play are revealed. Hereditary is similar, with the symbol of the sigil and the black herbs being consistent images throughout the film but only revealed as a threat following the discovery of the cult. Through careful cinematography, the sigils are planted in the viewer’s subconscious; they are not concealed, but they cannot be understood without concerted effort. This approach to presenting occult imagery can be interpreted as reflecting the ideas of Western esotericism, a broad term encompassing various schools of thought, but usually as a claim to a higher or hidden knowledge of the universe.5 In Hereditary, Aster, by leading the viewer on a journey into esotericism, renders what has been described as a ‘viscerally haunting’ presence, or the atmosphere of dread, amidst a family haunted by an unknown, unseen evil.6 This novel approach has allowed Hereditary (although anticipated by works such as Rosemary’s Baby) to be acknowledged as a key work of a new subgenre labelled Elevated Horror.In recent times, horror has come to be derided as one of the most disrespected of film genres, a tired deluge of slasher films reliant on visceral, violent visuals and little else. Elevated Horror has carved out a niche for itself characterised rather by slow burning terror,7 and a narrative executed in a slower, more considered way, with greater room for interpretation and symbolism.Upon release, Hereditary proved divisive, receiving a glowing 94% amongst film critics writing for the review website Rotten Tomatoes, but a D+ amongst general audiences according to the market research firm CinemaScore. However, as Aster explained in an interview, he did not want ‘to do the Devil again… It’s pretty much as simple as that.’8