Hereditary review round-up: Toni Collette is 'hypnotic' in 2018's most 'unsettling, unpredictable' horror movie

In a movie where everything goes wrong for a family, Hereditary is doing everything right, with film critics hailing it as a modern masterpiece in the horror genre. Opening in movie theatres in India on 22 June, Hereditary stars Australian actress Toni Collette as the daughter of a woman whose death unravels terrifying secrets about their family ancestry. The movie has won a 92 percent approval rating on review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, and Collette’s performance is winning early awards buzz, with Variety calling it “ staggering”. [caption id=“attachment_4507387” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Toni Collette in a still from Hereditary. Image via Twitter[/caption] In a script, by writer and first time director Ari Aster, Collette’s character Annie Graham appears at first to be a lioness mother looking after her pride, but she becomes overwhelmed and unravels as the story progresses. Time Out described Hereditary as a “ new generation’s The Exorcist,” while the Hollywood Reporter said the film’s malevolent premise turns into “a seemingly endless series of unexpected directions over two breathless hours of escalating terror that never slackens for a minute”. AO Scott from The New York Times called the film “ engaging, unsettling and unpredictable”. Tasha Robinson of The Verge called it “a hell of an intense ride, made for a crowd that enjoys heart-clutching adrenaline spikes”. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw said: “Hereditary is basically a brilliant machine for scaring us, and Collette’s operatic, hypnotic performance seals the deal every second she’s on the screen.” The AV Club’s AA Dowd called it “a supremely effective gauntlet of supernatural horror that’s also, at blackened heart, a grueling domestic drama about how trauma, resentment, and guilt can seep into the roots of a family tree, rotting it from the inside out.” Anthony Lane of The New Yorker said: “Hereditary is far more upsetting than it is frightening, and I would hesitate to recommend it to the readily traumatised.” Watch the Hereditary trailer below:

With inputs from Reuters