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“Elevated horror” (if you choose to recognize it) has been around for decades, but it’s had a huge surge in popularity since the 2010s. A24 is widely considered to have played a large part in this renaissance, and their movies from director Ari Aster in particular have been some of the subgenre’s biggest leaders. Aster’s movies specialize in taking internal fears and anxieties and turning them into external horror with incredible craftsmanship; all of his movies to date are beautifully shot and showcase some truly unforgettable visuals. However, in Hereditary and Midsommar especially, Aster doesn’t limit himself to just one sense; he uses sounds that are just as effective as the horrific sights he shows on screen. From screams to panicked breathing to much more gruesome noises, some of the most iconic moments in Hereditary and Midsommar are what we hear rather than what we see (although there’s no shortage of horrifying images, either). Toni Collette and Florence Pugh give career-high performances in their respective movies, sending chills through the audience with just the sound of their voices.
The Screams in ‘Hereditary’ and ‘Midsommar’ Are Genuinely Haunting
Ari Aster took the term “scream queen” to new heights with Hereditary and Midsommar. Usually, screams in horror movies aren’t what scares the audience; instead, they’re the characters’ response to something horrific, a way to signal to the audience that yes, they should be scared. But Aster took a different approach, isolating the sounds of a woman screaming from its source so that the sound itself is also terrifying. And it helps that he had two absolute queens in Toni Collette and Florence Pugh who were ready to make those screams memorable. In Hereditary, Collette’s Annie discovers the aftermath of a horrifically tragic accident in her family – but she does so off-screen. What the audience sees is her son, Peter (Alex Wolff), near-catatonic with shock. The camera lingers on his face in silence, until one of the most blood-curdling screams in cinema history breaks that silence to pieces. Collette’s scream is masterful, unnervingly conveying the shock, horror, and unfathomable grief of a mourning mother. Aster then follows up with a hard cut to an equally shocking image of the gore left behind – but it’s the screams that prime the audience for the terror to come.
Midsommar has a similarly devastating scene within the first 15 minutes. Pugh’s Dani is worried about her sister, who has a history of mental health issues. Dani herself is plagued by terrible anxiety but is forced to suffer it alone while her emotionally distant boyfriend, Christian (Jack Reynor), contemplates breaking up with her. He doesn’t get the chance, however, because Dani’s worst fears about her sister have come true, and then some. Just like in Hereditary, the horror of her sister’s actions isn’t shown right away and is instead heralded by a haunting scream. And just like with Annie, Dani herself also isn’t shown while screaming; her voice is heard through a phone speaker as she calls Christian but is unable to do anything but sob in anguish. Separating the sounds of the devastation from the actual act that caused it clearly shows that Aster wanted the screams to stand on their own to haunt the audience; it’s only after they experience the visceral reactions to the tragedies that he then follows them up with the equally gruesome visuals.
‘Midsommar’ Uses the Sounds of Screaming and Breathing to Instill Panic
Midsommar has another scene that relies heavily on the sound of screaming as well. After Dani witnesses Christian in a compromised situation with other cult members, she has a panic attack almost as bad as the one she had at the beginning of the movie. She stumbles away from the barn Christian is in, falling to her knees, and is quickly surrounded by other women from the cult. Dani begins hyperventilating, holding a hand to her throat as the women help her walk to their sleeping quarters. Once inside, the women encourage Dani to let out her emotions, breathing in unison with her until she starts screaming once again. Florence Pugh looks utterly in pain as she screams and cries, and the effect is magnified by the cult members mimicking her. Just like the earlier scene, Dani’s reaction is kept visually separate from the source of her anguish. And while these screams, and their cause, aren’t as horrific as those at the beginning of the movie, there’s still something chilling and unsettling about hearing the cacophony of this group of women breathing in unison and screaming at the top of their lungs together.
The unsettling sounds of breathing can be found throughout the movie, not just in the scene discussed above. Dani also spends most of the movie in a state of panic, and Aster emphasizes her breathing as a key indicator of that anxiety. We can also look to the very scene that causes Dani to spiral into a state of panic. In this sequence, a ritual of the cult is occurring, where a large group of naked women surround Christian and a member of the cult having sex. Like how the women breathe with Dani during her panic attack just moments later, the women witnessing the scene all breathe and chant in unison with the woman having sex. The scene is already uncomfortable due to the unflinching showcase of naked bodies and the act of sex, especially since Christian is drugged during the whole thing. The addition of the unnaturally rhythmic breathing from the group watching a typically private act enhances the strangeness of the scene perfectly.
‘Hereditary’ Uses More Unusual Sounds to Scare the Audience
Hereditary isn’t without its own ominous breathing sounds. Charlie struggling to breathe while going into anaphylactic shock is an effective precursor to the horrific way the unforgettable scene ends. Charlie also creates one of the iconic sounds of Hereditary, and possibly one of the most iconic horror sounds of the past decade: the strange tongue-clicking “tock” sound she makes throughout the time she’s onscreen. Charlie doesn’t have much dialogue in the movie, so this auditory tic really stands out and helps solidify her strangeness and isolation. Another very noticeable sound choice is in a scene where Annie saws off her own head in front of Peter. Just like the scream from earlier in the film, the audience hears a terrible noise, but doesn’t immediately see the source. Instead, Aster shows Peter noticing the sound along with the audience; it’s not easily identifiable, but it’s obviously something unpleasant.
Finally, after nearly 30 seconds, the camera cuts to Annie floating in the air, slicing into her own neck with piano wire. There’s blood, certainly, but there’s no close-up on the wound, no prolonged view of the cut itself. Instead, it’s just the grisly, meaty sound and Annie’s wide-eyed, terrifying stare until she finishes the job, their head hitting the floor with a sickening thump. The sound design team for Hereditary, led by Lewis Goldstein and Tom Ryan, gave an interview on how they made those kinds of sounds for the movie. They were inspired by the sound of a serrated wire saw cutting through PVC pipe when it came to the neck-slicing. They cut whatever they could think of with the wire saw, even frozen hams and chickens; they layered all the recordings together at the end to achieve the final, terrible sound heard in the movie. As for the head hitting the ground, Goldstein says they were meticulous about ensuring it sounded realistic, down to the time between each bounce after the head falls. “It’s a sick job,” he says, “but somebody’s got to do it.”
Both Hereditary and Midsommar are beautifully shot films and contain shots and sequences that no one can forget once they see them. So, the fact that they both also have specific sounds that are just as terrifying is even more impressive. Ari Aster masterfully manipulated sight and sound to create two movies so haunting that they’ve become modern classics. The next time you watch one of his movies, remember to listen closely to get the full effect of their scares.
Midsommar is available to stream on Max in the U.S.
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