Hereditary

2018’s Big Horror Film Trend: Inherited Trauma
2018’s Big Horror Film Trend: Inherited Trauma
2018’s Big Horror Film Trend: Inherited Trauma
By sheer coincidence, four of this year’s most poignant and effective horror stories are thematically connected by their exploration of familial mental illness and inherited trauma — the concept of traumatic experiences so deeply affecting that they are passed down from parents to children, whether by nature or nurture (or, in some cases, both). This idea is the driving force behind every terrifying moment in Hereditary, The Haunting of Hill House, Sharp Objects, and Halloween, all of which also happen to have another curious thing in common: Miniature houses.
‘Hereditary’ Review: The Bar For the Best Horror Film of 2018 Has Been Set
‘Hereditary’ Review: The Bar For the Best Horror Film of 2018 Has Been Set
‘Hereditary’ Review: The Bar For the Best Horror Film of 2018 Has Been Set
In recent years, one horror film emerges early on as the best horror film of the year. In 2017 it was Jordan Peele’s exceptionally smart social thriller Get Out; in 2016 it was Robert Eggers’ period stunner The Witch; in 2018 that honor goes to Ari Aster’s Hereditary. Starring Toni Collette as a woman struggling to cope with the increasingly disturbing implications of her mother’s death, Aster’s ferocious directorial debut plumbs the darkest depths of mental illness to reveal the true meaning of psychological terror.