A New ‘Hereditary’ Trailer Is Here To Haunt Your Nightmares
There’s a lot of hype riding on Hereditary, the Sundance horror hit that’s been hailed as one of the scariest movies in years. That kind of praise usually makes me want to avoid trailers, hoping to see as little as possible in advance. But A24 has done a pretty good job so far of teasing the nightmarish new film without giving too much away (at least, as far as I can tell).
The latest trailer shows a little but more than the first, but only teasing glimpses of frightening imagery without providing any more context. There’s Charlie, the daughter of Toni Collette and Gabriel Byrne, and something strange is going on with her. Birds fly into school windows, killing themselves. A flailing body is set on fire in the middle of a house. Another body is in a bed covered in ants. Even the most mundane things in the trailer become disturbing: the frantic chopping of nuts, the sharp crunch as Charlie bites into a chocolate bar. A successful horror trailer is one that freaks you the hell out, tells you just a little, and makes you anxious to see more. This is just that.
Here’s the cryptic synopsis:
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.
ScreenCrush’s own Britt Hayes saw the film at South By South West, giving Ari Aster’s directorial debut our first 10/10 review of the year so far. The hype is real, and I have a feeling Hereditary won’t disappoint. The film will plummet into the depths of your nightmares on June 8. In the meantime, you can check out an Etsy account of Charlie’s freaky handmade crafts glimpsed in the trailer.