Here’s Your First Look At The Movie That Left Sundance Shook

Well, this generation's Exorcist is here. Or, at least that's what Time Out New York is heralding Hereditary as. And, honestly, after watching the first trailer, Time Out's Joshua Rothkopf is right on the money. As Brenda Meeks once said, "Damn, this is some scurry shit!"

A24's latest addition to its impressive indie horror roster (The Witch, It Comes at Night, Green Room) left Sundance audiences saying it's the "most traumatically terrifying horror movie in ages." Rothkopf continues his Exorcist parallel, saying, "Heads will spin more savagely." Meanwhile, SlashFilm reports there's one moment in the film that had its Sundance viewers "jumping as one." Sign. Us. Up.

Writer-director Ari Aster's debut feature film essentially preys on one of life's biggest horrors of all: family. The death of a matriarch begins an exploration of grief and the unknown familial secrets such grief begins to expose and unravel. What sort of spiritual haunting did the deceased curse this family with? Why is their daughter decapitating birds outside of school? Who's possessing the son to the point of self-mutilation? What in god's name is causing all these ants to devour a body and other bodies to levitate? Honey bees, your guess is as good as ours. Either way, we're hooked.

Hereditary, which by the way stars Toni Collette, opens June 8.