It's "so deeply unsettling that you don't feel right afterward."
While every film is unique, it's possible to see a recurring theme in the 'relatively recent' horror films that have resonated with critics and fans alike.
Films like
Get Out,
A Quiet Place,
Mother! (this writer wasn't a massive fan of that one),
The Witch and
It Comes At Night have all focused on the family unit but
Hereditary looks set to unleash some horrific trauma.
We've had our eye on this one for a while and truth be told, it's shaping up to be one of the film events of the year because everything we've seen and heard about Ari Aster's film has been breathtaking.
Ok, what's it about?
When Ellen, the matriarch of the Graham family, passes away, her daughter's (Toni Collette) 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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6wWKNij_1M
Clip via -
A24
It's clear that Aster has been influenced by classic character-driven horrors like
Rosemarys Baby,
Don't Look Now and
The Exorcist. In fact, people have been comparing
Hereditary to William Friedkin's iconic horror but that's a little bit lazy because Aster's film really does stand up on its own merits.
In terms of the cast, Toni Collette has consistently proven that she's brilliant in anything - take a look at
Muriel's Wedding,
The Way Way Back,
Little Miss Sunshine,
The Sixth Sense for proof - and Gabriel Byrne is a very strong addition.
Hereditary is released on Friday and with a 93 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 87 percent on the far more reliable Metacritic, it's an essential watch for horror fans.
