'Hereditary' Gets Certified Fresh On Rotten Tomatoes

Hereditary, a newly-released horror movie starring The Sixth Sense's Toni Collette, is certified [...]

By Russ Burlingame

Hereditary, a newly-released horror movie starring The Sixth Sense's Toni Collette, is certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, with over 90% of its reviews marked as positive so far.

The critical consensus on the film's Rotten Tomatoes page (where the rating sits at 93% as of this writing) says "Hereditary uses its classic setup as the framework for a harrowing, uncommonly unsettling horror film whose cold touch lingers long beyond the closing credits."

The official description of the film says "When Ellen, the matriarch of the Graham family, passes away, her daughter's family begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry. The more they discover, the more they find themselves trying to outrun the sinister fate they seem to have inherited. Making his feature debut, writer-director Ari Aster unleashes a nightmare vision of a domestic breakdown that exhibits the craft and precision of a nascent auteur, transforming a familial tragedy into something ominous and deeply disquieting, and pushing the horror movie into chilling new terrain with its shattering portrait of heritage gone to hell."

Genre movies, and particularly low-cost horror and science fiction movies, have moved out of the direct-to-DVD ghetto and become critical darlings in the wake of Get Out. Like that film, Hereditary debuted at Sundance to a rapturous response.

Last week, Blumhouse Tilt's grindhouse cyber-thriller Upgrade scored over 80% on the Tomatometer, prompting a challenge to Star Wars, poking fun at Solo's struggles:

This probably should not be surprsiing, as more and more movies are utilizing the "certified fresh" designation and logo in promotional materials as a stand-in for traditional "critics are saying..." type TV spots.

You may remember Hereditary from the awful-and-hilarious thing where an ad for the terrifying, R-rated movie was screened ahead of a showing of Peter Rabbit back in April.

You know -- for kids!

Collette, Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff, Ann Dowd and Milly Shapiro star in the film, which opened in theaters in the U.S. today.

Hereditary, Upgrade, and Solo: A Star Wars Story are all in theaters now.

0comments
Start the Conversation

of