'Hereditary' Director Ari Aster On Why Horror is Best for Storytelling
Horrorific content by jessicagomez on January 24th, 2019 | Horror News |
After debuting at the Sundance Film Festival to stellar reviews, psychological thriller Hereditary made waves as a deeply chilling and emotional film that dissected a family’s grief over the loss of the family matriarch. Writer/director Ari Aster and star Toni Collette sat down with Deadline to discuss why they chose this project, and how the horror genre allows a more comprehensive outlet for storytelling.
“Every actor longs for a chance to ‘go for it’”, said Collette, and go for it she did; her captivating and horrifying performance may snag her an Academy Award nomination.
Aster noted that horror is one of the best genres for digging deep into a story and getting the chance to fully explore darker themes. “One thing that I love about genre storytelling is that you can take thematic material that...might be difficult for people to digest and might limit your audience, and thus limit the means you might have to tell your story, and you can filter it through this other thing that suddenly takes what might be a deterrent for audiences and then suddenly render it a virtue. The horror genre is one that kind of, I feel, allows you to tell more uncompromising stories without losing the audience.”
Hereditary is the highest grossing film for A24, and has won both audiences and critics over as one of the best horror films of 2018.
