Passes the Bechdel test

Hereditary

Name: Hereditary
Released: 2018

2018. Directed by Ari Aster, written by Ari Aster.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
11 women characters. 10 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 10 scenes out of 156.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.

The film

When Ellen, the matriarch of the Graham family, passes away, her daughter's family begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry. The more they discover, the more they find themselves trying to outrun the sinister fate they seem to have inherited. Making his feature debut, writer-director Ari Aster unleashes a nightmare vision of a domestic breakdown that exhibits the craft and precision of a nascent auteur, transforming a familial tragedy into something ominous and deeply disquieting, and pushing the horror movie into chilling new terrain with its shattering portrait of heritage gone to hell.

Released: 08 Jun 2018
Genres: Drama, Horror, Mystery
Rated: R
IMDb: 7.3 / 10
Metascore: 87 / 100
Awards: 52 wins & 112 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Annie 300 lines, woman
Steve 152 lines, man
Peter 123 lines, man
Joan 72 lines, woman
Charlie 27 lines, woman
Mr. Davies 16 lines, man
Bridget 15 lines, woman
Steve Annie 15 lines, woman
Dr. Stetson 12 lines
Brendan 7 lines, man

Full cast, 28 people

Toni Collette as Annie Graham
Alex Wolff as Peter Graham
Gabriel Byrne as Steve Graham
Milly Shapiro as Charlie Graham
Ann Dowd as Joan
Mallory Bechtel as Bridget
Brock McKinney as Aaron
Jake Brown as Brendan
Morgan Lund as Mr. Davis
Christy Summerhays as Charlie's Teacher
Bus Riley as History Teacher
Jarrod Phillips as Group Leader
Heidi Mendez as Spanish Speaking Woman
Zachary Arthur as Boy in Room
David Stanley as Man at Wake
Moises L. Tovar as Translator
Austin R. Grant as Stoner #1
Gabriel Monroe Eckert as Stoner #2
Harrison Nell as Student #1
BriAnn Rachele as Student #2
Pat Barnett Carr as Ellen Taper Leigh (uncredited)
Ari Aster as Archer Gallery Representative (voice) (uncredited)
Marilyn Miller as Woman in the Tree (uncredited)
Mark Blockovich as Support Group Member (uncredited)
Rachelle Hardy as Cult Member (uncredited)
Jason Miyagi as High School Partier (uncredited)
Lorenzo Silva as Skater Boy (uncredited)
Alexis Long as Cake Girl (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 4% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 156

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers

Scenes	Women's lines	Men's lines
1 to 4	1	6
5 to 8	24	14
9 to 12	22	14
13 to 16	7	18
17 to 20	12	14
21 to 24	13	8
25 to 28	0	0
29 to 32	7	10
33 to 36	17	2
37 to 40	15	25
41 to 44	5	6
45 to 48	3	5
49 to 52	5	1
53 to 56	0	4
57 to 60	1	1
61 to 64	0	0
65 to 68	0	0
69 to 72	0	1
73 to 76	25	0
77 to 80	8	7
81 to 84	1	21
85 to 88	20	28
89 to 92	32	44
93 to 96	69	0
97 to 100	8	4
101 to 104	60	30
105 to 108	11	9
109 to 112	8	11
113 to 116	18	13
117 to 120	0	3
121 to 124	9	3
125 to 128	0	0
129 to 132	5	0
133 to 136	1	6
137 to 140	1	3
141 to 144	9	4
145 to 148	22	12
149 to 152	0	0
153 to 156	7	4

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.

TEACHER CHARLIE: Are you done? What? CHARLIE: ...Almost.

ANNIE: Charlie? Charlie shuts the box, SHOVES it into a corner, and peers down to see ANNIE at the tree’s base. ANNIE: Come on, sweetie. It’s freezing out here. No response from Charlie. Annie doesn’t push it. ANNIE: Okay, well, I’m running out for a sec. Is there anything I can bring you back? CHARLIE: Why??

ANNIE: CHARLIE! Charlie looks to ANNIE, who is running in her direction. Charlie steps toward Annie. ANNIE: What are you doing?! It’s below freezing out here! Annie arrives at Charlie, not seeing the distant torches. She seizes Charlie’s arm and st… ANNIE: Are you an idiot? You can’t just roam around - no coat, no boots! Charlie YANKS her arm away from Annie. ANNIE: Oh - what? You’re angry with me? Annie GRABS Charlie’s arm and PULLS her back toward the house.

ANNIE: Hi. JOAN: Are you doing any better? ANNIE: What? JOAN: With your mother...?

JOAN: Annie! You came! ANNIE JOAN: It’s a little earlier than we said. Ah, you’re perfect. Come in.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 57 are women's.

446 lines from women, 331 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

11 women and 17 men in the cast. 10 women and 13 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 6 of 807. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 29 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 63% of the words (6,035), men 37% (3,595). Women have 57% of the lines, so their lines run longer than men's.

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.

Conversations between two named characters

Two women

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

4 of the 12 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 28% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Ari Aster (man)
Written by: Ari Aster (man)
Produced by: Buddy Patrick (gender not listed), Lars Knudsen (man), Kevin Scott Frakes (man)
Shot by: Pawel Pogorzelski (man)
Edited by: Lucian Johnston (man), Jennifer Lame (woman)
Music by: Colin Stetson (man)
Production design by: Grace Yun (woman)
Costumes by: Olga Mill (woman)
Cast by: Jessica Kelly (woman)