It rapidly earned a reputation as one of the most frightening movies ever made. Esquire described it as "the scariest film I've ever seen in my adult life" and, with a score of 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, they clearly weren't alone. That was back in 2018 when Ari Aster’s feature debut, Hereditary, burst onto cinema screens. And now it’s set to terrify us all over again as it arrives on Netflix in the US (it's included on Prime Video for UK viewers).
The story of a grieving mother (Toni Collette) trying to protect her family after a traumatic loss had the cinema-going world at its feet after a world premiere at Sundance. Grossing over $80 million around the world against a $10 million budget, it became A24’s highest earner ever, until it was replaced by Everything Everywhere All At Once some four years later. Aster, in the meantime, moved into folk horror for his next film, Midsommar (2019), which starred Florence Pugh and then shifted to more angst-ridden comedic territory in Beau Is Afraid (2021), with Joaquin Phoenix in the title role.
