The first trailer has arrived for Hereditary, a horror movie that received acclaim at the 2018 Sundance film festival. Horror fans have been living in something of a golden age recently, as the genre is performing well on the big screen and TV. IT was a runaway success in 2017, earning $700 million worldwide, and becoming the highest grossing R-rated horror movie of all time. Other Stephen King adaptations like Netflix's Gerald’s Game and 1922 also received rave reviews.
Blumhouse also had a very good 2017, with Get Out becoming a critically acclaimed hit and earning four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. Twin Peaks, Stranger Things and Channel Zero show there’s plenty of life in the genre on television too. 2018 is also shaping up quite nicely, with the forthcoming Halloween sequel, Annihilation and even Venom to look forward to.
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Fans should also be excited for Hereditary, which received critical acclaim after screening at Sundance, with some reviews already proclaiming it the best horror movie of the year. The story follows a woman who recently lost her mother and begins to discover creepy things about her ancestry - which in turn has a bad effect on her own children. The trailer features unsettling imagery and a thick air of dread, which are both elements singled for praise out by reviewers.
Hereditary’s cast includes Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, and Alex Wolff. Some reviews have also compared it to The Babadook, another independent movie that combined horror with an intense family drama. The trailer and reviews certainly make it easy to get hyped up for Hereditary, but it’s probably a good idea to keep expectations in check at this stage. Movies like It Comes At Night and The VVitch were both sold as terrifying horror movies and received great reviews, only for some viewers to find themselves disappointed at the lack of traditional scares or horror tropes when they were finally released, resulting in something of a backlash for both movies.
Hopefully, this year’s line-up of horror will keep up the overall quality of 2017. Indie fare like Hereditary, The Cured and A Quiet Place take familiar ideas but approach them from a new angle, while brand names like Halloween, The Purge and The Predator will take their franchises back to basics.
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Hereditary begins playing in a limited theatrical release later this year on June 8.
Source: A24