Was the iconic Hereditary beheading scene an homage to Super Troopers?
I was just rewatching the intro to super troopers, one of the great comedic intro sequences of our time to what became an instant comedy classic, and it had a visual sequence in it that was extremely evocative of Ari’s famous highway decapitation from Hereditary. Trooper Foster is fishing by the side of the road with a mannequin in the driver’s seat of his parked car, intended to look like he’s clocking people’s speeds. He gets a call that there’s a speeder coming by soon (the speeder is another trooper, Mac, pranking his colleagues), and as he starts to pack away the mannequin, Mac speeds by and knocks the mannequin’s head clean off.
Obviously this sequence brought to mind Charlie’s beheading in Hereditary, and clearly Super Troopers came out way before Hereditary, and I really truly believe that Ari would already have seen Super Troopers whenever he made Hereditary. Now the Super Troopers mannequin beheding scene isn’t particularly famous although it is part of a very famous and often quoted sequence (yeah sure/yes sir, littering and …, you boys like Mexico?) but it was a sight gag so not quotable and just didn’t really get picked up by the culture. I have seen the movie a few times over the years and never thought anything of that sequence, but apparently this was my first time rewatching it since I saw Hereditary a few years back, and I found the resemblance to be unmistakable. I also suspect that there’s not another prior movie out there with such a similar sequence.
Anyway it’s ambiguous enough that I have no inclination if it was an intentional homage or an unconscious influence, or maybe it’s all just completely unrelated, but to me the resemblance is a bit to strong to give much credence to that last option. What do y’all think? Am I just seeing ghosts?