20 Greatest Movie Moments Of The 2010s

20. Hereditary: Charlie's Death

It's safe to say that no-one whatsoever saw this coming.

Thanks to Hereditary's ingenious marketing, Charlie (Milly Shapiro) was widely expected to be one of Hereditary's main characters... but she was then decapitated in a car accident about half an hour into the movie. Er... what?

Not only is this a completely shocking moment to the point where most probably thought it was a fake-out death at first, but it's a generally brilliant bit of horror film-making. Ari Aster, despite this being his first feature, directs this scene with the impeccable skill you'd normally expect to see from a directing veteran with decades of experience and the absolutely amazing acting from Toni Collette (who should've won Best Actress but wasn't even nominated) makes this a harrowing depiction of bereavement and grief.

It's an intensely sad sequence where you'll want to look away, especially when That graphic close-up of Charlie's severed head appears on-screen, but it's nigh-on impossible to do so.

Hereditary isn't a great film (although it's certainly a good one) thanks to its painfully bad final act but it did still deliver one of this decade's greatest death scenes.