10 Best A24 Horror Films

When Annie’s mother passes away, a supernatural force wreaks havoc on her family’s life and brings their complicated history to the surface.

While Hereditary contains its fair share of traditional scares, it’s the gut-wrenching family drama that leaves you vulnerable, largely due to Toni Collette’s harrowing performance. She swings between the extreme ends of grief, rage, and terror like it’s nothing, and several scenes are hard to watch because of her emotional intensity.

Instead of throwing jump scares in your face, the film puts bug-infested corpses and smiling naked specters in the background and makes you sit with them. Annie’s history of mental illness leaves you wondering if these visions are real or not, and the story takes several unexpected twists and turns that keep you on your toes.

The film’s slow pace and bleak subject matter pay off in the explosive third act. Ari Aster bombards the audience with the type of scares you’d expect to find in an exorcism film, but they feel properly earned.

The freakish ending ties the story up in a satisfying way, and upon rewatching the film, you'll find lots of hidden clues scattered throughout that make the experience even more rewarding.