Modern horror at its very best

Sometimes directors struggle to follow-up a sensational debut with a career to match – Donnie Darko’s Richard Kelly being a prime example – but if Hereditary is anything to go by then Aster is going to do some great things behind the camera.

Here he’s managed to shoot a menagerie of indelible images that will stay under your skin for days in a style so dizzying you feel like you’ve just spent an hour on a rollercoaster – blindfolded.

Annie is a miniaturist artist and Aster uses this to film a series of shots that make it appear as though the family are living in their very own dollhouse.

Speaking of the family, the film’s central quartet are masterfully performed by four stars of varying experience with each turn as strong as the other.

Collette physically and mentally transforms – at times within the same scene – with ease, Byrne is the best he’s been since The Usual Suspects, Wolff follows up My Friend Dahmer with another layered display and Shapiro, another making her cinematic bow, is more creepy and menacing than a night in an unlit haunted house surrounded by zombies.

Even when you start to think you have an inkling of where the film is going, Aster’s script pulls the rug out from underneath your feet – and slaps you in the face.

I’m always hesitant to label a movie an “instant classic” until giving it repeat viewings, but Hereditary is a masterful example of horror at its surprising, thoughtprovoking, petrifying best.