Sundance debut dubbed ‘scariest horror’ cinema has seen in years

Sundance audiences were left terrified after a midnight screening of Hereditary, this year’s hotly tipped horror debut from writer-director, Ari Aster.

Hereditary sees Toni Collette in the leading role as mother to a family grieving the loss of their grandmother and dealing with the sequence of harrowing events that seem to follow as they further delve into their ancestry.

The feature film is already scoring 100 percent on the review site Rotten Tomatoes, with critics calling it ‘pure emotional terrorism’ with a nod to a modern-day Rosemary’s Baby. The universally praised piece of work is produced by new kid on the block A24 films, an independent distribution company, who over the last few years have gone from being relatively unknown too working on Academy Award winning projects.

Hereditary sees gripping performances not only from Collette but from fictional siblings, Peter and Charlie Graham, played by Alex Wolff and Milly Shapiro. Both siblings appear to be affected by the presence that remains after the passing of the family matriarch but the trailer hints towards a more sinister focus on teenage granddaughter Charlie.

Shapiro deserves an honorable mention for having one of the best ‘horror film faces’ in modern cinema, which proves hard to distinguish whether she is 8 or 80, only adding to the on-screen sense of foreboding she transcends as the loner teenager who seems to spend her time mutilating birds.

The trailer for Aster’s debut film exhibits a fresh approach to horror, similar to other successful screenplays of the genre in recent years such as, The Babadook, The Witch and It Follows. The boom in art-house horror cinema could be thanks to audiences searching for new and interesting scares after years of a landscape dependent on sequels, cheap footage and jump-scares.