Real-life accident that inspired Hereditary’s most shocking scene resurfaces

The tragic incident that inspired Hereditary’s most shocking scene has resurfaced on Reddit.

Written and directed by Ari Aster, Hereditary is one of the most acclaimed movies of the last decade, so-much-so that we recently voted it the best horror movie of all-time.

Anchored by a spellbinding Toni Collette performance, the film revolves around a family dealing with grief and trauma, as well as something potentially supernatural.

But the movie’s most upsetting scene is a terrible accident; one that appears to be based on a tragic true story.

In the movie, Peter takes his sister Charlie to a party, where a slice of cake triggers her nut allergy. Peter rushes her to hospital, but when Charlie sticks her head out of their car window for air, he swerves the car to avoid a dead deer, and she’s decapitated by a telephone poll.

Peter then drives home, and in a state of shock, doesn’t alert anyone to the terrible tragedy, with his mother finding Charlie’s headless body the next morning.

A24

A Redditor posted the following earlier today: “I think I found the accident that inspired *that scene* from Hereditary,” above a 2004 article that details a near-identical incident.

The accident occurred in Marietta, Georgia, in 2004, when 21-year-old John Kemper Hutcherson drunk drove his friend Francis Daniel Brohm home from a bar. Brohm felt sick so stuck his head out the car window, just as Hutcherson swerved off the road, resulting in Brohm being decapitated by a telephone support wire.

According to the report, “Hutcherson then drove 12 miles to his suburban Atlanta home and slept in his bloody clothes leaving the headless body in his truck.”

In the comments underneath, one Redditor updates the story, writing: “I live in the area and used to drive by the spot where it happened on my way to work. I noticed the power company moved the guide wire considerably further away from the road.”

Hereditary is streaming on Kanopy, while it can also be rented from all the usual outlets. For more scary stuff, check out our list of the best movies to ket kids into horror, as well as the some scary anime to watch this Halloween.