'Hereditary': Watch A Clip From The Most Terrifying Horror Movie Of 2018

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I’m late to the game, as most critics saw the film in January at Sundance, but I’m still reeling and shaking over “Hereditary,” A24‘s magnificent new horror drama that opens Friday (June 8). As I raved on Twitter this week following a special Alamo Drafthouse screening of the movie, and to paraphrase myself a bit, “Hereditary” absolutely gutted me. It’s a profoundly disturbing and distressing look at family and grief, but it’s also twistedly funny; not just a dour, dark experience (though sure, its heavy, perverse and gnarly). “Hereditary” currently stands at 94% on Rotten Tomatoes and our review from Sundance called it a “game changing horror masterpiece” which sounded like a lot of hyperbole at the time, but then you see it and you think, “oh, maybe, we didn’t praise it enough.”

“Hereditary” is stunning. Not only emotionally flooring, terrifying, deeply unsettling, but it is masterfully crafted. It is literally unfair to so many others out there that the filmmaker, Ari Aster, is a first-time feature-length director (though he has directed shorts that many swear by; that’s next on the list).

READ MORE: ‘Hereditary’ Is A Game Changing Horror Masterpiece [Review]

“Hereditary” is an unsettling horror movie, but it’s also like a Bergman-esque chamber drama about family. I described it as a “Bergman-esque witch metal movie” only to discover the Guardian had one-upped me (and beat me to the punch by a few days) by labelling it “like a death-metal version of Bergman’s ‘Cries and Whispers,'” which is so fucking good it makes me cry and the filmmakers and studio should put it on a T-shirt. This is a film that bowled me over.

The movie centers on the Graham family. When the elderly matriarch passes away, her daughter’s family begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry.

READ MORE: ‘Hereditary’ & 10 Movies To Watch In June

“Hereditary” is a masterclass in tension, anxiety-building, subtle audience manipulation, and unnerving directorial control; from what the filmmaker chooses you to see, why and when, the knowing choices of exclusion, to an uncanny knack for sensory-building experiences, Aster is unfairly talented. If this is just his first feature, oh boy, are we all in for it.

The chilling, soundscape score by Colin Stetson, an experimental musician who has worked with Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, Bell Orchestre, scored David Michod‘s “The Rover” and contributed to the music in “Arrival,” is also a sonic feast, alarming and discomforting all to itself.

Oscar talk out of Sundance is always a bit comically early and again, too hyperbolic, but Toni Collette, who leads the film as a grieving mother, should be a legitimate contender she is absolutely breathtaking in the role. Collette’s apparently called it the most difficult role of her career and one can easily believe it. She wrecks you with her anguish and in the process looks wrecked.

Co-starring Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro, with Ann Dowd and Gabriel Byrne, everyone is superb in this bone-chilling movie. By the way, does this sound maybe a little too dark and depressing? Wait for it, when halfway through the movie, it takes LSD and goes totally bonkers in a beautiful, but still completely-faithful manner to the wounding narrative Aster has crafted.

Here’s the official synopsis, but your takeaway should be that “Hereditary” is a waking nightmare in the best and worst possible way; exactly what you should want from a horror movie.

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.

“Hereditary” opens tomorrow, June 8. I can’t speak to the fact if this clip works out of context of the movie because I’ve already seen it, but just watching a taste gave me the chills and I turned it off. Go seek “Hereditary” now, immediately, but also, then get ready for the months of therapy you’ll need to recover.