1. Hereditary

Hereditary is a 2018 supernatural horror film written and directed by Ari Aster and produced by A24. The film stars Toni Collete as Annie who is currently grieving after her mother’s sudden death. As her dysfunctional family starts to get tenser her 16-year-old son Peter (Alex Wolff) decides to attend a party and Annie forces him to take his 13-year-old sister Charlie (Milly Shapiro) with him. After having an allergic reaction to a snack at the party Peter rushes to the hospital with Charlie in the backseat as she is gasping for air. To help breathe she sticks her head out the window and as Peter swerves out of control after a deer crossing his path, he accidentally decapitates his sister as her head goes flying into a utility pole. Desperate for sanity, Annie tries to reach out to Charlie through a séance. By doing this Annie invites unwanted spirits into her home who begin to plague her and Peter. As the two slowly start going insane, Annie then finds out the dark secrets about her mother’s past revealing that she was the leader of a satanic cult. After an unseen force possesses Annie leading to her death and Peter is crowned to rule over his grandma’s coven this movie is a dark and disturbing masterpiece.  

The dark performances of Toni Collete and Alex Wolff are nothing short of fantastic. Critic Roxana Hadadi from Rotten Tomatoes says, “Toni Collette delivers a soul-shattering performance in Hereditary that reminds us how much sacrifice parenthood is and how deeply parents can scar their children, utterly beyond repair.” The insanity and grief they both portray amongst each other as a dysfunctional family are too real. The cinematography makes the atmosphere darker than the plot. As Ari Asters’ debut film, he has created one of the best horror films in recent years. This film deserved 2 wins for Best Actor and Best Actress the performances portrayed by Collete, and Wolff are absolutely flawless.

2. Us

Jordan Peele’s second feature film Us stars Lupita Nyong’o as Adelaide a mother who goes on vacation to her family’s old beach house with her husband (Winston Duke) and her children (Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex). After suffering a past trauma 20 years ago she has finally gained the courage to head back where it once happened. Once arriving she starts to get a strange feeling that something is right. That same night 5 strangers show up at their doorstep as their worst nightmare ensues. The strangers break into their house and as they sit across from each other the family realizes it is them. The strangers take the form of the family as they are all replicas or twins of some sort of each other. Adelaide’s double named Red is the only one able to speak. As we learn from Red that the replicas are called “The Tethered” and were a government experiment once used to try and control the ones above and once failed, they were forced into tunnels underground to mimic the movements of the ones above and were held as prisoners. The tethered then chase and try to kill the family as they want revenge for being left with scraps. As we learn everyone in the world has a tether and they want to take the life they rightfully deserve. We also later learn in the film that the trauma that Adelaide faced as a child was, she came face to face with her Tether and swapped places with her, as the real Adelaide is the one living as a tethered and the real tethered has been living as the real Adelaide for over 20 years.  

Lupita Nyong’o’s double performance is absolutely stellar. Her character Red has a strained voice and in an interview with Variety, she explains where it came from. She says “I was inspired by this condition called spasmodic dysphonia which is a condition that comes about from trauma, sometimes emotional, sometimes physical, and it creates this spasming in your vocal cords which leads to an irregular flow of air. So, I studied that. I worked with an ear, nose, and throat doctor, a vocal therapist, and my dialect coach to try to do it and do it safely cause I had two roles to play.” Her dedication and talent made her performance and this film nothing but spine-chilling.  

Director Jordan Peele’s imagination is like no other. After winning an Oscar in 2018 for best original screenplay the idea for this film was genius. The creative thought filled with intense scenes, characters, and a jaw-dropping plot twist made it a thrilling roller-coaster. This film also deserved 2 wins one for Best Actress and won for Best Original Screenplay. Peele should’ve taken the trophy home for his 2nd year.