Once in a blue moon, a new horror film creeps up on us that is so devilishly dark, it spins heads 360.
Ari Aster's Hereditary, which hit UK screens in June 2018, was one such movie - and in good news for horror heads, it's now landed on Netflix.
It was the cinema release that everyone was talking about it. Word of its slow-burn scares spread like wildfire; I remember people picking out 'support groups' to go and see it with.
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Racking up column inches and praise, Hereditary was described as "the singularly most terrifying horror film in years" and "this generation's The Exorcist".
Clearly, the movie hasn't lost its chilling touch, because Twitter users who streamed the movie this week are suitably shook.
"20 minutes into watching hereditary on Netflix and my heart has stopped twice," wrote one terrified viewer.
Another agreed: "Hereditary now on Netflix if you wanna watch one of the best horrors of the last decade. Some scary sh*t."
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"Hereditary is finally on netflix u know damn well i'm gonna make my family watch it so they can all have nightmares," chimed in a third horror lover.
Need a refresher on the bone-chilling horror?
Hereditary follows the Graham family in the wake of their mysterious and "difficult" maternal grandmother's death.
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She leaves behind her daughter Annie (Toni Collette), mum to anxious stoner Peter (Alex Wolff) and doodling outcast Charlie (Millie Shapiro).
Rock of the family, dad Steve (Gabriel Byrne) is the glue holding the pieces together.
As the Graham clan process their loss, it soon becomes apparent that there's far more to their ancestry than they could ever have known.
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Before long, the family matriarch's death sets off a chain of devastating events that sees her family begin to come apart at the seams.
With secrets unravelling and cryptic clues pointing to occult practices, Annie and her family try to outrun a sinister fate seemingly captured in their very DNA.
From the powerhouse performances (Toni Collette, in particular, is astonishing) to its chilling, slow-build sense of dread, Hereditary is a masterclass in horror.
There's a creepy 'small world' subplot, too, with the opening sequence blurring the boundaries between a doll's house - built meticulously by Annie - and the real-life family home, all in one seamless shot.
Oh, and we don't have the word count to do justice to Millie Shapiro's palpitation-inducing performance as the clucking, possessed Charlie. That car scene made us, well, lose our heads.
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Hereditary is now available to stream on Netflix.
Featured Image Credit: NetflixTopics: TV and Film, Horror, TV News, TV Entertainment, Netflix
