Scariest Movie Ever Made. Yes, It Is.

Rating: 10/10 (7 February 2020)

I've watched hundreds, maybe thousands of movies. Nothing felt more genuinely creepy/off/terrifying than Hereditary. You can't unsee some of these scenes & they will stick with you, I promise. I watched Hereditary the first time alone in a totally dark room with a 100" screen & 11 speakers at 2am & about 75 min into the movie I actually turned it off because I was legitimately too scared to continue. I'm 40 yrs old. It was too scary for me to keep watching. Let that sink in. Only movie I ever turned off midway out of fear. I know everyone has different tastes, but why this movie isn't lauded like The Shining or The Exorcist or (fill in the blank with any widely beloved horror movie), I don't understand. Maybe it just hasn't had enough time to be fully appreciated yet. I don't know, but in my opinion, it's brilliant. The mother & son are so good together that their acting actually makes me very anxious. It's believably uncomfortable, unnerving, & real. Toni Collette should not only have won an Oscar for best actress, she makes people like Heath Ledger & Jaoquin Phoenix look like borderline amateurs at acting crazy. No disrespect to those guys for their takes on the Joker, but Collette is freakin genius in her ability to go from stoic to insane in under 5 sec. She's the Ferrari of mentally unstable! And I LOVED it.
These A24 cats don't get nearly the recognition they deserve. So many unique, suspensful thrillers that keep your heart beating faster than it should. Hereditary, It Comes at Night, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Witch, Room, etc. I haven't seen them all but I love A24 so much I just bought Midsommar & The Lighthouse. I'll keep buying their stuff. They can have all my money. They're worthy every penny of the entertainment they provide.