Hereditary
A24 | Release Date: June 8, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
87
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 49 Critic Reviews
Positive:
46
Mixed:
2
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
EmpireDan JolinJun 14, 2018
A raw horror masterpiece from a first-time director that deserves to be mentioned in the same frantic breath as the genre’s greats. Even the most jaded viewer should find something in Hereditary to disturb and distress them. Read full review
100
The TelegraphRobbie CollinJun 14, 2018
This is categorically not a film that will be universally admired – but even as it cleaves to old formulas, it transports your mind to new terrain that feels genuinely and frighteningly hostile, and leaves you with plenty of mental souvenirs by which to remember the trip. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJun 7, 2018
The shock moments here (including one that might send one or two viewers running for the exit) are truly stunning, and grotesque, and bizarre — and they will stay with you long after you’ve gone home for the night. Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJun 7, 2018
A meta-mystery lurks here — how it is that this horror flick can be so shocking and dismaying, so genuinely upsetting in spasms and spurts, yet at the same time so madly entertaining. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangJun 7, 2018
The sensationally gifted writer-director Ari Aster may tip his hat to the horror canon (“Rosemary’s Baby,” “The Shining”), but he has no interest in making a coy, winking exercise in horror pastiche. With breathtaking deliberation and quiet, unshowy mastery, he spins a devastating portrait of an American family in sudden, inexplicable decline. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzJun 7, 2018
Creepy beyond belief, Hereditary is one of those movies you shouldn't describe in detail, because if you do, it will not only ruin surprises but make the listener wonder if you saw the film or dreamed it. Read full review
100
Village VoiceApril WolfeJun 7, 2018
In Aster’s story, as in life, the devil is in the details. As the film goes on, these details accumulate, coalesce, and then hang heavy over the characters. Read full review
100
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerJun 6, 2018
An exquisitely crafted box of nightmares, and once you realize that the lid has already closed with you inside, it will leave splinters under your skin. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisJun 5, 2018
Hypnotic and intense throughout, the brilliantly executed Hereditary taps into the ghosts within all of us — the insidious roots of family dysfunction — and turn them upside down and all around. It’s an audacious supernatural thriller where the psychological fallout is just as disturbing as the apparitions that come chillingly to life. Read full review
100
The GuardianPeter BradshawJun 4, 2018
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. Read full review
100
Total FilmMatt MaytumJun 4, 2018
A tour-de-force turn from Toni Collette powers one of the most affecting horrors in recent memory. Genuinely unsettling in a way few genre efforts are: you’ve been warned. Read full review
100
ScreenCrushBritt HayesMar 14, 2018
Hereditary is weighty horror that builds to an impossibly heavy finale, the metaphorical implications of which land on the heart like a ton of bricks. Read full review
100
Time OutJoshua Rothkopf
A harrowing story of unthinkable family tragedy that veers into the realm of the supernatural, Hereditary takes its place as a new generation's The Exorcist—for some, it will spin heads even more savagely. Read full review
93
IGNWilliam BibbianiJun 7, 2018
Hereditary is one of the scariest movies around, and a spectacular showcase for actors Toni Collette and Alex Wolff. The film’s subtle shocks and realistic drama combine to create a dreamlike atmosphere, drenched in psychological horror, which builds and builds to a climax that you won’t forget anytime soon. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyJun 8, 2018
Hereditary doesn’t reinvent horror cinema so much as polish the cobwebs off of its classics, strip them for parts, and refashion them into something that feels terrifyingly fresh and new. Read full review
91
ConsequenceRandall ColburnMar 13, 2018
Hereditary‘s horror functions on multiple levels. What we see is undoubtedly terrifying, but it’s how we see it that truly distinguishes the film. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd
It’s 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. Read full review
91
The PlaylistJordan Ruimy
This is a remarkable, triumphant, and confident picture by Aster, who gives the film an almost meditative-like sensation, as you feel every space you’re in, every emotion, every moment of grief. Hereditary refuses to employ cheap thrills, creating its cinematic scares with atmosphere, and continuously reinventing itself at every turn. Read full review
90
TimeStephanie ZacharekJun 7, 2018
There’s some creepy, spooky stuff in Hereditary, images and ideas that just might surface in your nightmares. But the radical, undiluted humanness of Collette’s performance is the movie’s most haunting effect. There’s nothing supernatural about it. Call it the best humans can do without witchcraft. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJun 7, 2018
Mostly it's brilliant, challenging, deliberate, scary as all get out. It's as much a portrait of a dysfunctional family as it is a horror movie. But don't let that relax you. It's definitely a horror movie. Read full review
90
VoxAlissa WilkinsonJun 1, 2018
The movie lingers in the mind and sits like a lump in the soul. And it’s deliciously twisted along the way. Hereditary has nightmare fodder to spare, and nobody, in the end, gets to escape. Read full review
90
We Got This CoveredMatt DonatoMar 14, 2018
Prepare to be turned-ghost pale by horrors of the mind, body and soul, unlike you’ve experienced in quite some time. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterDavid Rooney
Hereditary takes the core haunting element of a spirit with a malevolent agenda and runs with it in a seemingly endless series of unexpected directions over two breathless hours of escalating terror that never slackens for a minute. Read full review
90
Screen DailyTim Grierson
Grief, guilt and family dysfunction prove to be overwhelming forces in Hereditary, a supremely elegant and tonally assured horror movie that trusts its audience will acquiesce to its measured, absorbing storytelling style. Read full review
90
VarietyOwen Gleiberman
Ari Aster directs slowly, meditatively, purging the film of any of the usual horror-video razzmatazz. Instead, he creates scary coherent spaces for the audience to sink into. Read full review
88
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenJun 28, 2018
Collette anchors all of this supernaturality with a powerhouse performance. Read full review
88
USA TodayBrian TruittJun 7, 2018
Hereditary isn’t just a scary movie. It’s much, much, much worse than that. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJun 7, 2018
A terrifying, pitch-black kind of horror movie that takes up residence in your mind for days, even weeks later – but it is also a family film. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJun 5, 2018
Above all, there’s Collette, who sometimes can overdeliver a dramatic moment or an aghast reaction, but in this storytelling context she’s fabulous. It’s a fierce performance with a human pulse, racing one minute, dead still the next. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversJun 5, 2018
It's Collette, giving the performance of her career, who takes us inside Annie's breakdown in flesh and spirit and shatters what's left of our nerves. Her tour de force bristles with provocations that for sure will keep you up nights. But first you'll scream your bloody head off. Read full review
86
The VergeTasha RobinsonFeb 6, 2018
Hereditary is a hell of an intense ride, made for a crowd that enjoys heart-clutching adrenaline spikes. The cast is unerringly terrific. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric Kohn
Writer-director Ari Aster’s first feature culls from a tradition of slick, elegant genre filmmaking, making up what it lacks in originality with an impressive volume of atmospheric dread. Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJun 11, 2018
Here’s the thing, though. Hereditary is far more upsetting than it is frightening, and I would hesitate to recommend it to the readily traumatized. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJun 7, 2018
The film, Mr. Aster’s debut feature, is engaging, unsettling and unpredictable, generating a mood of anxious fascination punctuated by frequent shocks and occasional nervous giggles. But I also found it a bit disappointing. Read full review
80
Vanity FairRichard LawsonFeb 6, 2018
Writer-director Ari Aster, making a promising feature debut, has created plenty of forbidding atmosphere; there’s almost no shot in the film that isn’t filled with creeping dread. But Hereditary ultimately engages on a more emotional and intellectual register than it does on the visceral. Read full review
79
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeJun 8, 2018
With nary a jump scare in sight, Aster has created a moody piece with a delicate but devastating sense of dread. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayJun 7, 2018
Creepy, creepy, creepy. Writer-director Ari Aster makes an impressively unnerving debut with Hereditary, a meticulously crafted horror thriller. Read full review
75
The Associated PressJake CoyleJun 7, 2018
Aster, who also wrote the film, fills his movie with foreshadowing clues that give the gruesome events to come a cruel note of inevitability. There’s a curse on this family, whether by ghost or DNA. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrJun 6, 2018
It’s an eerie mood piece that slowly and surely tightens the thumb screws before all hell breaks loose; that and the fact that much of Hereditary takes place in one rambling dark house is evidence that Aster has spent a lot of time studying “The Shining,” “The Exorcist,” and “Rosemary’s Baby.” It’s nice to have a classicist back in town. Read full review
75
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonJun 6, 2018
Writer-director Ari Aster excels at making these old-school horror movie moves (he gets great mileage out of seance scenes), and the intensifying atmosphere of dread is thick. And he layers on effective, original ideas. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenJun 5, 2018
At more than two hours, it’s simply too long. However, thanks to Collette’s work, “Hereditary” is a horror movie that really sinks its claws into you. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreJun 1, 2018
Hereditary isn’t original enough to merit “great film” praise. But by bending and extending the tropes of the genre and hiring top drawer talent to buy in, Aster makes us buy in, too, and gives us a pretty disturbing picture to chew on and mull over on the way home. Read full review
75
The Film StageJordan Raup
Aster displays proficient skill in eerie tone-setting, elaborate production design, and the type of scares that will leave a pervasive imprint on the mind, even if the underlying mythology gets over-complicated by the finale. Read full review
70
The AtlanticDavid SimsJun 7, 2018
Hereditary is a great scare-fest and a middling domestic saga, one that probably needed to be either 90 minutes long and brimming with terror, or three hours long and suffused with glacial, Bergman-esque dread. Aster has charted a middle path, and for a first film, it’s hard to fault the skill he’s shown in doing it. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJun 5, 2018
Just as the “French Extreme” film Martyrs set a new standard for garish sadism, Hereditary raises the bar on emotional agony. If you want to see things you can never un-see and feel pain you can never un-feel, here’s the ultimate test. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJun 6, 2018
First-time director Ari Aster hits a home run when it comes to an overall sense of impending doom. Sadly, Aster’s story isn’t as waterproof as his stylistic aptitude. Read full review
50
SlateInkoo KangJun 7, 2018
Hereditary only begins as a Greek tragedy. After a few too many twists and turns, it gets warped into a horror soap — an unnerving but ultimately numbing pile of calamities. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineKeith UhlichJun 5, 2018
In writer-director Ari Aster's smugly agitating feature debut, the devil is certainly in the hackneyed details. Read full review
25
ObserverRex ReedJun 12, 2018
These days actors not only appear in bad movies, they are forced to produce their own flops themselves. Toni Collette and Gabriel Byrne co-executive produced Hereditary. They deserve what they get, in spades. Read full review
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