"Hereditary" and Toni Collette Lurking
Thursday, January 25, 2018 at 6:15PM by Chris Feil
This year has made for a quiet Sundance Film Festival, no? While there seems to be less word on major deals and potential Oscar players in the year to come, one premiere that has quickly become must-see material is Ari Aster's horror debut Hereditary. Cryptic reviews have promised genuine genre scares and (much to our excitement) a worthy showcase for Toni Collette. Collette's co-stars include Ann Dowd and Gabriel Byrne.
The film centers on a family after the death of their not-so-beloved grandmother. Her artist daughter (played by Collette) deals with the increasingly spooky fallout...
Early word has vehemently guarded the film's twists and surprises and A24 will release the film later in the year. It sounds like the actress has finally been given tour de force material that she's long deserved and rarely gets anymore. The film reportedly begins as more of a family drama before tilting into full-on scares, so she also should get to flex her underappreciated range.
We're not usually horror hungry here at The Film Experience, but this sounds like a something we can all get behind, especially if A24 sticks to keeping Hereditary's secrets under wraps. And with some hefty comparisons to the likes of Rosemary's Baby, The Babadook, and Collette's own Oscar nominated performance in The Sixth Sense being thrown around, it sounds like something terrifying and special indeed.
A24, Hereditary, Horror, Sundance, Toni Collette
Reader Comments (14)
Man, she was so good in Sixth Sense. I've always felt like she was one of the most underrated actors, when I am more inclined to see a movie if she's in it.
Love Toni in Sixth Sense & Little Miss Sunshine. Hope this movie is worthy of her immense talent.
I wouldn't recommend this to anyone that isn't okay with having some very dark buttons pushed but I posted one of this director's short films over on MNPP earlier today and it is... dark. In surprising ways.
Her "Do I make you proud" in The Sixth Sense has me a sobbing wreck every time. Jeez, I'm getting teary thinking about it.
I was in the minute I heard Toni Collette.
How fun would it be if her second Oscar nomination was for another horror film.
I'm always onboard for a film containing "Toni Colette + Buzz", no matter the genre.
Such an under-appreciated treasure (which is weird to say about an Oscar-nominated and multi-BAFTA-Globe-SAG-nominated actor)
I endured (or thought it would be endurance) Krampus over Christmas and thoroughly enjoyed it (in no small part due to Colette elevating the material - it also, combined with Big Little Lies, made me want even more Adam Scott in movies for 2018 onwards).
Somebody cast her in Big Little Lies 2, please...
I love Collette and horror films, so I'm already a yes. She should have won the Oscar winner for The Sixth Sense and been cast as Roxie Hart in Chicago, which also reminds me that she needs to do a musical film ASAP.
You had me at Toni. She would have killed it as Roxie. I just watched her in Miss You Already. A perfect example of an intelligent actor taking mawkish grist and shaping it into something honest and real.
Whenever I want to cry, I watch Japanese Story. Despite her maddening shortage of rich material, I don't think it's hyperbolic to say that Toni Collette is one of our greatest living actors.
I'm already counting the days until I can see this!
This is exciting, especially after her amazing performance in Krampus!
She got so close to playing both Roxie Hart and Bridget Jones. Sigh.
I don't want to read another word about this movie. Already sold.
From 2006
"Harvey Weinstein demanded that Renee do it even though the writer and producer said to me, 'We're writing this for you ... please don't take any other jobs,' " Collette tells InStyle magazine
Well... another reason to hate HW.