The scariest thing you’ll see is ‘Hereditary’
Horror flick turns tropes — and viewers — inside out
NEW YORK – Imagine every nightmare you’ve ever had was remixed into one unrelenting, dread-inducing horror movie. The result might look something like Hereditary (in theaters Friday), the dark family drama disguised as fright flick that united Sundance Film Festival-goers in collective screams when it premiered in January. Widely considered by critics to be one of the scariest movies ever, it’s the rare horror outing to earn rave reviews (93% positive on Rotten Tomatoes) and awards attention for actress Toni Collette, returning to the genre nearly two decades after her Oscarnominated turn in The Sixth Sense (1999).
“This film lends itself to the communal theatrical experience,” says Collette, who recently saw it with an audience for the first time. “There’s a safety-in-numbers aspect, but also just the palpable energy of people losing their (expletive). It’s really funny to observe.”
But what exactly makes Hereditary so utterly terrifying?
The story begins, as many horror films do, with a death: Unhinged artist Annie Graham (Collette) has just lost her estranged mother, whom she learns had secret friends and engaged in Satanic rituals in her final years. The Grahams — concerned husband Steve (Gabriel Byrne), standoffish son Peter (Alex Wolff ) and disturbed daughter Charlie (Milly Shapiro) — grieve in their own unique ways, until another devastating blow unleashes an ancestral curse that rips the family apart.
Taking cues from Rosemary’s Baby and Don’t Look Now, the movie throws
tried-and-true horror ingredients into a hellish blender that includes creepy kids, séances, swarming insects and charred corpses. The goal, according to first-time filmmakerAri Aster, was to “upset people on a deep level” with scares they think they already know.
Horror fans “come in with expectations; they know the tropes and conventions,” says Aster, who was inspired to write Hereditary after years of trying to get a movie financed and deciding horror was the best route. “A lot of the setup here is designed to be familiar, but then things happen that I hope jolt you out of complacency and encourage a more active emotional engagement. That’s the fun of working in (this) genre: How can you honor (tradition), but then be totally irreverent?”
Hereditary taps into existential fears of dying and abandonment as
Annie slowly loses her mind in the wake of insurmountable loss. She re-creates traumatic scenes from her life using painted miniatures and dollhouses, and befriends a mysterious woman (Ann Dowd) who communicates with the dead.
Collette, 45, found it easy to sympathize with Annie, despite the character’s lingering resentment about motherhood.
“There are so many despicable moments when she seems so unlikable and self-absorbed, and isn’t a very good mother,” Collette says. But in the end, “she’s so repressed and so protective of her family. She’s lived with this (curse) her whole life — this knowledge that something is definitely wrong — and can’t understand what it is. It’s total torture.”
The actress, who also stars in indie comedy Hearts Beat Loud this month, left her two kids (ages 7 and 10) and musician husband Dave Galafassi at home in Los Angeles when she shot the film in Utah last year. But unlike Jennifer Lawrence ( mother!) and Dakota Johnson ( Suspiria) — who reported getting physically ill and needing therapy while shooting their recent forays into horror — Collette assures us she made it out with her health and mind intact.
“I have had experiences like that on other films,” Collette says, laughing. “Upon reading ( Hereditary), I knew it would demand even more of me and I needed to take care of myself. I just found a way of shaking it off day by day, rather than letting it accumulate and explode at the end of the job.”
Adds Aster: “It was amazing to see you, because there are some scenes when you’re just howling in anguish, but you’d stroll in like, ‘Hey, guys! What’d you have for breakfast?’ And when I yelled cut, you’d be on your knees, just screaming, and then, ‘OK! Off to the (snack) table.’ ”