In Hereditary, Toni Collette stars as Annie Graham, who is showing signs of severe stress. Her mother recently died, yet the emotions she is experiencing are even more profoundly disturbing than grief.
We see evidence of that in our exclusive clip from the horror film, as a single question unexpectedly bursts into a heated argument over dinner. Annie is quick to become agitated after her son Peter (Alex Wolff) inquires about her feelings, despite efforts by her husband Steve (Gabriel Byrne) to calm things down. The horror drama follows what happens after Annie, Steve and Peter discover mystifying secrets about their ancestry. As they slowly unravel the cryptic puzzle, they learn that a sinister fate may await them.
Fandango spoke exclusively to Hereditary director Ari Aster about this specific scene and what it means to the film. “[This scene] was always the centerpiece of the movie,” he said. “At that point, so much has happened between them and so little has been expressed or communicated, they're not talking. They obviously have a very fraught history; we learn more about that history later. We've learned a little bit about that history just before.”
Aster added, “The idea was that we're making a film about a total breakdown of communication, and then we have this purging that should be cathartic, and it is cathartic in the moment. But it ends without catharsis, because there's more to be said. And there's, now, a lot to be taken back. And neither of those things are going to happen. So it's kind of the scene that promises to either release them from this or to really kick things up a notch.”
Watch the intense clip below. Get your tickets to Hereditary now; the horror film opens in theaters on Friday, June 8.
