Hereditary scores big box-office but terrible audience reactions

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

This past weekend we finally saw the release of one of the most hyped horror movies of the past few years with writer-director Ari Aster's HEREDITARY starring Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, Milly Shapiro (see above), and Alex Wolff hitting screens across the country.

So what did people think?

Well, to begin, the film holds a stellar score of 92% over on Rotten Tomatoes so I guess that means critics liked it, right? Seems so. And then we have word via Box-Office Mojo that the film scored a (relatively) awesome $13 million for its opening weekend tally! Hoo-ray!

But…

It looks like the film has a fairly disastrous Cinemascore rating of D+. To compare with another controversial (but classic) horror release via A24, THE WITCH received a meager C- on the same scoring system. So that should tell you all you need to know.

To refresh, the new horror movie begins:

When Ellen, the matriarch of the Graham family, passes away, her daughter's family begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry. The more they discover, the more they find themselves trying to outrun the sinister fate they seem to have inherited. Making his feature debut, writer-director Ari Aster unleashes a nightmare vision of a domestic breakdown that exhibits the craft and precision of a nascent auteur, transforming a familial tragedy into something ominous and deeply disquieting, and pushing the horror movie into chilling new terrain with its shattering portrait of heritage gone to hell.

The new film only cost a reported $10 million to make so it's $13 million opening already makes it a hit. But it looks like the film's second weekend will see a huge drop based on this negative word-of-mouth (from general audiences.) And speaking of the audience, the polls show the movie's opening weekend audience was 58% male, 42% female, and 74% under the age of 34. If that means anything to you.

All of this is kind of irrelevant as horror hits people in different ways. So the big question here is what did YOU think of the film? Let us know below! The film is currently playing in theaters nationwide.