It received some of the most passionate reviews at this year’s Sundance film festival and within just one month, critics have declared that Hereditary may already be the year’s scariest film.
It stars Toni Collette and Gabriel Byrne as the parents of a family dealing with grief. As they dig deeper into their ancestry, they start to fear about what they might have inherited. The film’s first trailer gives us a tease of what’s to come and it includes ants, a headless pigeon and someone on fire.
The festival has become a successful launching pad for a number of major scary movies, including Saw, The Witch and last year’s Get Out. Hereditary received universal praise this year with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with many tipping it to be a breakout hit this summer.
“It’s pure emotional terrorism, gripping you with real horror, the unspeakable kind, and then imbuing the supernatural stuff with those feelings,” wrote AA Dowd for the AV Club. “It didn’t play me like a fiddle. It slammed on my insides like a grand piano.”
Time Out’s Joshua Rothkopf called it “a new generation’s The Exorcist” while The Playlist’s Jordan Ruimy wrote that it “feels like the culmination of the last 50 years of horror”. There’s also been early Oscar buzz for Collette, last nominated for her role in The Sixth Sense: Variety’s Kristopher Tapley suggested she deserves recognition for a “powerhouse” performance.
It’s the first feature-length film from writer-director Ari Aster and will join distributor A24’s impressive genre library alongside The Witch, It Comes at Night and Green Room.
- Hereditary is released in US cinemas on 8 June and in the UK at a later date
